Free TV on Southwest Flts

I came across this and I know we have a lot of frequent southwest flyers on VMB. Thought it might be helpful to some of you!



The Wall Street Journal
July 1st, 2013 2:25pm EDT

Southwest Offers Free In-Flight TV in Partnership With Dish Network

Southwest Airlines Co. LUV +1.71% is offering free live television to fliers' smartphones, tablets and laptops under a partnership unveiled Monday with Dish Network Corp.

The move that marks a departure from other airlines' strategies on in-flight entertainment by having a third party—rather than customers—fund the service.

Starting Monday, customers can access 14 live TV channels and up to 75 on-demand TV shows free on their Wi-Fi-enabled devices during flights on 427 of Southwest's planes, more than 60% of its fleet.

The service previously cost $5. Passengers will have to watch a 30-second Dish Network commercial to access the free TV.

A Southwest spokeswoman said the promotion would last through at least the end of the year.

 

That is a value added perk. However, I have never had much luck with my tablet and streaming on airplanes.

 

If I'm not mistaken, the airlines have/had the bandwidth throttled so that people couldn't do streaming to their devices over the onboard wifi.

Ford did a promo a couple of years back on another airline where they sponsored access on the plane's wifi to access Facebook. Not as cool as the SW deal, but maybe other airlines will look into this too.

 

Sounds like a nice extra. I don't see a downside, assuming it works.

 

I've got two Southwest flights coming up in the next few months, but only to St. Louis and Chicago, one hour flights each. I'm curious as to how it works.

 

Ohhh trust me.... someone on here will point something out!!! Our plane had it last week and it worked just fine!

 

Downside - the 14 minute battery life of my Netbook. Don't have a tablet, smartphone might last 45 minutes if I want to hold it up for that long.

Now, if they offer electricity...

 

Portable chargers are cheap. My sons is about the size of a cigar and will fully charge his iPod 3 times, mine is the size of my wallet and will charge my iPhone 5 times. I'm sure it would add at least one full charge to a tablet. Incredibly handy when camping or flying.

 

I used it on two flights over the last week. It worked great. iPad went from 100% to 80% for me on 3 1/2 hour flights.

I also liked the flight tracker that is also part of the package.

 

Just used it, works well. Only 15 channels and a few shows.

 

Flight tracker, woo hoo! I love keeping track of where the plane is at during a flight. Now that is a plus.

 

Hmm... on every single flight I have flown, I was able to keep track of my plane. It was strapped into it!


LOL!


(sorry, it just struck me funny - I know what you really mean)

 

Just got home this morning and was on a plane that had the promotional (stewardess's term) available. Cost money (8$) for the day to have actual internet. They had television piped in with various offerings. I picked MLB and watched a couple of baseball games. Too late for golf. Rest of the shows were not familiar and it was too late for golf. I liked it but will bring headphones for my phone so to listen as well. It passed the time and was unique for me. Next time no big deal I am sure.

Only downside was ignorance of the battery usage while watching. But the car charger got us up in no time. I imagine the "promotional" period is to determine interest. Interest in PAYING for it and interest in it being free are not comparable so much with pay-for-view.

As an aside, from San Diego to Dallas it was the family of four last on and looking to sit together. All eyes to the tarmac and what seemed like an older lady's voice came from somewhere in front of me....."early bird check in, that's the ticket" Not sure if it was targeted at the "shoppers" or commenting on using the early bird and being asked to move......Other than that it is simply SWA.

 

So is this really free or is it a "free" add-on with the paid wi-fi?

I really can't see paying for the wifi on an hour flight.

 

Just wanted to throw in my two cents. Our last flight to Vegas I booked a connection in Phoenix because the timing of the non-stop was just way too early for us.

Anyway, our departing flight was delayed and I figured we missed the connection. We got to PHX and the flight was waiting. We had A30 &31 boarding, but the flight was already completely boarded and we ended up in the back of the plane in 2 middle seats and 6 rows apart.

Perhaps this was a similar situation?

 

I will purchase the TV option on United for longer flights (such as to Vegas) on planes which have installed the service (I believe it's Direct TV and there were over 100 channels available). I thinks it's $8 for flights over 2 hours ($6 for under 2 hours).

Sounds like a great deal free.

 

Free for now. WiFi has always been $8 on their flights, but not needed for this service.

 

Thanks for the information. I will try it out on the upcoming flight.

 

Thanks. If it's on my flight next week I'll check it out.

Hmmmm ... I thought it was $5 for WIFI. I haven't used it for a long time and I certainly don't want to pay for it on a one-hour up-down flight.

 

WiFi used to be $5, now $8. Movies still $5. TV is indeed free. On my recent flight to LAX, I watched 6 episodes of 30 Rock. On the way home from LAS, 6 episodes of The Office.