British Airways will add a free tier to its inflight internet offerings, becoming the latest airline to tie internet service to its loyalty program. Passengers on equipped aircraft will soon have access to the “messaging” option on board by logging in with their Executive Club account. The program goes live on 3 April 2024, and is expected to be available on all fitted aircraft within two weeks.
We’re on a journey to a better BA for our people and for our customers, underpinned by a transformation program that will see us invest £7bn over the next two years to revolutionize our business.
– Sean Doyle, British Airways’ Chairman and CEO
BA’s free WiFi messaging plan
As with the many other airlines offering similar functionality, the free messaging plan includes applications such as WhatsApp, iMessage, Facebook Messenger, and Teams Chat. The system only allows text-based chatting; videos, images and attachments are blocked from the conversations.
Access will be limited to a single device per passenger/account number. Members of partner airline loyalty programs will be expected to sign up for the BA program rather than use the partner account. To date only Air Canada offers the partner account access option on its system. Delta Air Lines executives have expressed interest in a similar approach, “[W]e don’t want our partners’ customers to have to join our program. It’s not it’s not relevant to us. We want them to stay there so we’re working a process now to allow partner credentials to be able to be used to gain access.”
Presumably BA could easily implement something similar across its Avios-integrated partners given the common backend for the points platform. Whether and when that happens, however, remains an open question.
BA also notes that Wi-Fi is available on 100% of its Gatwick fleet and 80% of Heathrow fleet. That latter number should get to 100% by the end of 2025.
Seating updates, big and small
The carrier also announced seating updates for its smallest* and largest planes.
Moving forward its new A320neo and A321neo fleet will see 60W USB-A and USB-C outlets installed in the seatback of its Club Europe business class cabin on board. Economy class passengers will get 15W of power. The premium seats will also see the leather tray return, blocking the middle seat for business class.
BA’s A380s will also get an update to their first class suite. The new seat will debut at the end of 2025 as part of an aircraft refurbishment program on the super jumbo fleet.
*There are smaller planes flying with the BA livery on board, but they’re operated by CityFlyer and SUN-AIR and do not have connectivity on board nor known plans for such.
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