747 Wifi on LHR/LAS

Hi guys quick request for info.

I'm due to head to Vegas next week, but will need to stay in contact during the flight with work. I've used the Wifi very sucessfully for email and browsing on the 330 and 340, is it just as good on the 747 too?

Also with LAS as the VS43 tends to take a very northern route, do you loose signal going over Greenland etc , I seem to recall going to San Fran a few years ago and loosing connection at the very north end for quite a while?

[mitchja]

Yes, the WiFi works perfectly well on the 744’s. I used it last week on G-VROM. It’s was getting 20Mbps down and 2Mbps up.

It works using a satellite connection so it shouldn’t matter where abouts you are.

Fantastic, thanks James!

Who books a weekend away in the middle of the delivery phase of a major project eh?!

Fantastic, thanks James!

Who books a weekend away in the middle of the delivery phase of a major project eh?!

Not me...I take the full 2 weeks!!..

I'd comment using VPN's or streaming via the unlimited 14.99 package the service does drop sometimes. Also they in T&C's note on the 747's that your first 100Mbyte an hour will be faster than subsequent data, the 20Mbit headline rate drops to ~ 600K or so from my experience once you go past a certain data in an hour.

(cough) there are a couple of 1-2 min deadspots whilst the antenna moves around 4 times I noticed during the flight, so I wouldn't expect perfect connectivity entire time.

I *may* have had a live video stream running at a reasonably low (~320) quality down during an entire flight to MCO last November.

But that should (for a technie) give you an example of what to expect.

[mitchja]

The more people using the system at the same time, the slower it will be.

It does also specify that the system is not designed for streaming.

The 747 / 333 / 346 system is, I believe, the faster, higher bandwidth 2Ku system hence why that doesn’t come with any usage limits.

The 789 system isn’t 2Ku, hence why that does come with a maximum of 150Mb usage.

No idea what is used on the A332’s?

G-VNAP is the only VS A/C not to have WiFi.

What are the WiFi benefits for having the Virgin Money black card?

What are the WiFi benefits for having the Virgin Money black card?

I would imagine there is zero benefit. The wifi on the 747's is not run by VS - it's GoGo internet.

Similarly, the Virgin Money credit card (be it red or black) have nothing to do with VS, it's a Virgin Money product. Sure, both Virgin Atlantic & Virgin Money pay Virgin Group licencing / royalty fees to use the Virgin brand.

[mitchja]

I *think* you can only access the T-Mobile based WiFi system on the 789’s using the Rewards+ card included Boingo WiFi account benefit.

The GoGo based system on all the other aircraft has no option for a Boingo account log-on.

I have never yet been able to connect using my Boingo account on the 787 - authentication always fails. I’ve ended up paying on each occasion.

I’ve been meaning to contact Boingo support, but never yet got around to it.

Thank you for the practical experiences.

Reassuring to know I can keep in touch, thanks