![]() (SEE ALSO: New Southwest Performance Business Card Review – 80,000 points as a welcome offer!) Last month, we wrote a little bit about the new Southwest Performance Business Card, which comes with an 80,000 point welcome offer as well as a variety of other amenities. Points With a Crew and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Points With a Crew has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. #Southwest airlines wifi free#That’s something that should happen much faster, with roughly half of the fleet featuring upgraded Wi-Fi by this fall.Don't miss out! Join the thousands of people who subscribe to our once-daily email or our free miles and points Facebook group with all the best travel news. On top of that, Southwest is also upgrading its Wi-Fi offering on both new and existing aircraft. Southwest definitely has a lot of catching up to do there, and unfortunately not all planes will be retrofitted with this feature. Most significant is that the airline will finally be introducing USB power outlets at every seat, starting in early 2023. Southwest Airlines is investing in its passenger experience. Southwest is upgrading its inflight Wi-Fi Bottom line On top of that, Southwest will be working with Viasat to provide high-speed Wi-Fi and live entertainment on newly delivered aircraft starting in the fall of 2022. It sounds like Southwest is probably trying to head the direction of other airlines by eventually offering free Wi-Fi for all. As part of this test, Southwest is offering free Wi-Fi to all customers on select flights to understand how the upgraded equipment performs with a large number of users. Testing for the upgraded Wi-Fi equipment is now underway on some routes over the western mainland US. Plans are for this latest generation Wi-Fi to be available on 50 aircraft by the end of May 2022, with a projected 350 aircraft upgraded by October 2022, so that’s pretty exciting. Southwest is upgrading Wi-Fi on its existing fleet with longstanding connectivity provider Anuvu’s latest-generation hardware, capable of providing a significant improvement in speed and bandwidth up to 10x what’s currently available. Not only is Southwest introducing power ports at every seat, but the airline is also investing in its inflight Wi-Fi offering. Southwest Airlines is finally introducing power outlets Southwest improving inflight Wi-Fi And while this is better than nothing, I do wish the airline were also installing AC power outlets. Of course there’s a cost to installing power at seats, but surely it’s negligible, since even American is doing it. It’s especially odd since Southwest has actively been taking delivery of new planes, so the decision to take delivery of planes in 2022 without power seems short-sighted did the airline think that power outlets were a fad that was going to disappear?.Up until now Southwest hasn’t offered in-seat power or personal televisions but has offered Wi-Fi, so if you want passengers to stay entertained, it makes sense to at least let them charge their electronics.While Southwest focuses heavily on its core value proposition, it’s not an ultra low cost carrier it’s odd to have no change fees, few ancillary fees, and even allow two free checked bags, all while not offering in-seat power.Southwest operates some long flights that are well over five hours (including transcon flights and flights to Hawaii).It’s one thing if it were 2012, but it’s now 2022, and airlines have come a long way: I’m thrilled to see this, and I’ve always found Southwest’s decision to not have in-seat power to be bizarre. There are no plans to retrofit the classic (non-MAX) Boeing 737 fleet. Unfortunately the timeline here is really slow - the first newly delivered jet will feature power in early 2023, and the plan is for around 250 Boeing 737 MAXs to feature power by the end of 2023. ![]()
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