As someone who flys several times a month, on-board Wi-Fi has increasingly becoming a pain point for me. If you’ve done any air travel lately you may have noticed that aeroplane Wi-Fi is starting to get a little better.
While there are definitely still planes out there where you’re going to pay a small fortune for the privilege of potentially opening three emails during your flight, some planes are actually capable of streaming video from services like Netflix and providing speeds where you actually stand a chance of getting some work done in-flight.
If you’re curious what the Wi-Fi situation is going to be like on your next flight, Routehappy, the company that provides that data to services like Skyscanner, Sabre, and upside has you covered. Now instead of just characterising Wi-Fi as “basic,” “better,” or “best” the service is going to be providing mode detailed descriptions of the connection speed.
Specifically, email and messaging, basic web browsing, fast web browsing, and Netflix streaming capable. So you’ll be able to tell at a glance what sorts of things you’re going to be able to do with that connection.
You can get the information now by searching for your flight on Skyscanner or Routehappy’s website (I got spotty results on Skyscanner when I test drove this).
I don’t know that I’d pay a lot more for a flight with Wi-Fi capable of Netflix, but if it’s a matter of a few dollars and I know I’d be able to stay connected during that 8-hour flight, it would definitely be worth it. Regardless, it’s nice to know whether you can commit to being connected to Slack during that flight or if you should throw up the out of office for the day.
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