Reliability and quality of Wifi?
 

Did a quick search and didn't see any recent threads, so...

My wife might be flying VS from the USA to LON in June (upper class, FWIW). As of now, it could be from DFW, but other departure points are possible. She might need Wifi good enough for emailing and checking websites. How is the quality and reliability of the Wifi on VS? And though I doubt she'd need or want to Skype - and hope she wouldn't do so - is that an option on VS just in case?

Thanks for any advice.

I fly TATL on VS somewhat regularly, the wifi *to me* is not meaningfully better or worse than any other carrier.

I successfully email, text, skype chat (doubt a call would work) the whole flight.

I have only been on one VS 747 TATL (MAN > ATL) that the wifi did not work the entire flight

I haven't tried streaming/Skype but I think they are technically not supported on the WiFi (whether they work in practice is another matter.) Generally though, I've found the WiFi on the 747s and A333s to be excellent - good stability from takeoff to landing and very reasonable speeds. On my last flight I spent the better part of 6 hours messaging people and sending photos and honestly I've had worse WiFi on the ground, at work and in coffee shops. I wouldn't have had any concerns doing work over the connection. Unlimited Data is included in the more expensive package, and I've always been very satisfied.

Having said that, my experience on the 787 was markedly different. The limit the last time I flew was 150mb (I think this may have gone up to 200 now) but in any event the connection was so dreadfully slow that I was never able to use it. On top of that, merely attempting to get it to connect took up around half of the total data allowance, even with most data consuming apps and processes manually turned off. I assume this is because the 787s had the first-of-of-the-first gen WiFi installed whereas the rest of the fleet got a later version. Fortunately it was an overnight and this wasn't a massive issue, but it was still a disappointment. VS did give me some VS miles as compensation (as I paid for the most expensive WiFi package and couldn't use it), but I don't have much confidence in the WiFi on the 787s until I experience a significant improvement.