How good is Southwest wifi?

[erin1715]

We strictly fly SW but generally have only flown short flights from NY to FL for WDW, and I think I only remember purchasing the inflight wifi once and I don't remember it being very good.

We have a flight coming up next week to Cali, so it's much longer and I want to be sure we are prepared with books as well as movies/TV. I can rent movies through Itunes, but I also have Hulu and Amazon Prime which both allow streaming. Does anyone have experience using the inflight wifi to stream shows? How well does it work? Thanks!

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Live streaming from Hulu, Amazon, HBO, etc., takes up too much bandwidth and I don't know of any airline which allows this, including Southwest:

https://www.southwest.com/html/air/products/wifi-access.html?clk=GFOOTER-PRODUCTS-WIFI

 

[erin1715]

Live streaming from Hulu, Amazon, HBO, etc., takes up too much bandwidth and I don't know of any airline which allows this, including Southwest:

https://www.southwest.com/html/air/products/wifi-access.html?clk=GFOOTER-PRODUCTS-WIFI

Bummer, okay then I better download some movies to have ready. Thanks!

 

[kristenrice]

IIRC, when I looked at "buying" the inflight Wi-Fi on SWA, I seem to remember it saying that streaming is "blocked" so that you cannot watch Netflix, etc. I believe that they do that because of the large amount of bandwidth that would be required to effectively allow a plane full of people to stream at the same time. The inflight Wi-Fi is mainly used for internet browsing (like the Dis!) and checking e-mail and such.

 

[Starshine]

I flew Southwest from Pittsburgh to Seattle in April. I didn't pay for the wifi, but I did watch the free live TV and it was great. Limited channels, but I had a good time watching the Price is Right and all the HGTV shows I never watch at home.

 

[emmabelle]

I had issues with trying to watch the live TV in January, worked probably 2/3 of the flight and then wouldn't. Had to read a book instead. lol

 

[DebbieB]

Not all planes have it. My one to FL did not, it was a "737 classic", i.e. old plane.

 

[zaccaglin]

I used to just connect to the free version of the SW wifi, it allowed me to use the flight tracker and brose skymalls website. It also surprisingly allowed me to iMessage on my iPhone. All without paying. Not sure how the iMessage part worked but it did, not sure if it still does.

 

[JessM]

You can download many Amazon prime shows and movies for free. Once you open them they have a 48 viewing period. It works great for long flights! I have the Amazon video app on my ipad and it works like a charm.

 

[Sandi]

If your library participates, Hoopla is a great app for books, movies, tv shows, etc. You can download movies on your iPad for free. You're limited to a certain number of check-outs per month, and the movie downloads only last for a few days, but free is good. www.Hoopladigital.com

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Never assume airline wifi or entertainment will work. All of them are pretty unreliable. I once watched a woman whine for 4 hours because she brought nothing to do and the TV was down.