How to Know If Your Flight’s Wi-Fi Will Be Netflix-Worthy
As someone who flies 4-6 times a month, onboard Wi-Fi is becoming more and more a problem for me.
If you’ve been traveling by air lately, you may have noticed that airplane Wi-Fi is getting a little better. While there are definitely planes on which you are going to pay a small fortune to be able to potentially open 3 emails in flight, thanks to some new technology from GoGo, some planes are indeed capable of streaming video from services like Netflix and Hulu and delivering speeds at which you do have a chance to get some work done in flight.
If you’re wondering what the Wi-Fi situation will be on your next flight, Routehappy , the company that provides this data to services like Skyscanner, Saber and others, will help you. Now, instead of simply describing WiFi as “basic”, “best” or “best”, the service will provide detailed descriptions of the connection speed mode. Specifically email and messaging, basic web browsing, fast web browsing, and Netflix streaming. This way, you can immediately determine what you are going to do with this connection.
You can get information right now by searching for your flight on Skyscanner or on the Routehappy website (I got mixed results on Skyscanner when I tested this).
I don’t know if I’ll pay a ton more for a flight with Wi-Fi supporting Netflix, but if it’s a matter of a few dollars and I know I can stay connected on this 8 hour flight, it’s definitely worth it. Still, it’s nice to know if you can connect to Slack on this flight, or if you should give up work during the day.