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Southwest Airlines Community

SWA Internet is unusable?

cyfan2000
Explorer C
On several flights I've purchased internet on a SW flight and it can best be described as unusable. Waiting forever for pages to load or time out is not worth the money. The question is...how can they get away with this ? I've purchased several times and it's awful and won't try again. (The people behind me were complaining too so it's not just me or my device.)
7 REPLIES 7

Re: SWA Internet is unusable?

chgoflyer
Aviator A

I've tried many, many times and have never been able to do anything except perhaps check email (on a good day). I've had my $8 fee refunded so many times that I've just given up even trying anymore. I'm always surprised when someone reports that the wifi was working well. At best, I think it's a case of "your mileage may vary." 🙂

Re: SWA Internet is unusable?

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

Has anyone noticed an impact from position in the plane? I'm hoping to find a "sweet spot" seating location, but it seems to depend on other things...how many people are streaming the TV/movies, etc.

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: SWA Internet is unusable?

chgoflyer
Aviator A

To be clear, the wifi inside the plane isn't the issue. It's the satellite connection to the internet. Seat position has nothing to do with it.

 

Southwest's streaming live TV service generally works very well. I suppose there is a bandwidth limit that could be a factor if, say, an entire plane full of passengers was all accessing it at the same time. But I've found that, unless the whole system is down, which happens occasionally, the entertainment system is robust.

 

For the internet connection, satellite has some inherent issues with latency due to the distance the signal has to travel. And bandwidth is absolutely an issue here. Which is why Southwest's provider blocks streaming video and other high-bandwidth applications. But that said, I've found the internet connection to be generally unusable for even the simplest tasks.

 

There are reports that Southwest is beefing up it's internet service in the next year or so. Fingers crossed that this helps.

Re: SWA Internet is unusable?

gus262
Explorer C

I have similar issues. I can rarely get the internet to consistently work. It is so slow that I can only do one or two emails in an hour and I have to hit send multiple times. Other airlines don't seem to have such a poor user experience so I am wondering why Southwest is struggling with this. I love Southwest and fly them weekly but, it is extremely hard to be productive when the internet connection is so unreliable. This is one of my only frustrations with Southwest and the experience is consistently bad regardless of where I am flying in the country. Would love to see this one fixed and upgraded. I would even pay double for a reliable connection. PLEASE HELP SWA!!!!

Re: SWA Internet is unusable?

Mlevi
Explorer C

I have had the exact same experiance with the poor wifi experience- non existent internet - ok tv and movies. Problem is this has been going on for years. Would be nice to get a specific update on when this will be fixed as opposed to a simple appology. I have not seen where they acknowledge there is a problem they are addressing.

Re: SWA Internet is unusable?

DfDrPepper_23
Frequent Flyer C

Smiley LOLSmiley LOLSmiley LOL😂🤣😂😆

Re: SWA Internet is unusable?

DfDrPepper_23
Frequent Flyer C

I know I had problems with internet on SWA, not one, but few time for the past few years. More money and unreliable service. Total rip-offs. I heard Jet blue offer free internet. But I haven't tried it yet.