NEW: Refreshed experience for A-List Preferred & Business Select Customers

[stevenrollinson]

Inflight Entertainment & Internet Update

Along with today's exciting news that Inflight Internet is now Free for our A-List Preferred Members AND Business Select Customers we launched a new login experience!

Some of the major upgrades are:

• A mobile friendly design
• Customers no longer leave the portal to authenticate
• Customers can use their Rapid Rewards login or confirmation number to authenticate

To access the new experience tap "A-List Preferred & Business Select" in the hamburger menu from any page inside the Inflight Portal. The new experience is available on both of our connectivity providers.

[johnindallas]

This is a great perk except that it's not working - at least not for me.  

I was on four flights a few weeks ago. Even though I had purchased Business Select fares for both my wife and me, we were not able to get free w-fi on any of the flights, no matter which of five different devices we tried to log in with and regardless whether we used our RR numbers or confirmation numbers as credentials.

All we got was a recurring message EVERY TIME saying it looks like you are not eligible for free Internet. I ended up having to pay $8.00 per segment for each of us to get wi-fi.

I've contacted SW customer service three separate times about the issues and asked WHY this happened. I have been given LUV vouchers and RR points with a form-letter apology about our not being satisfied with service. I'm grateful for the financial offset but what I really wanted was an answer as to WHY I was promised something that the airline did not deliver on. 

Anyone have an idea as to how widespread this problem of non-free internet might be and/or why it's happening? Can't get an answer from the airline no mater how I try.

It's times like this I still had my A-List Preferred status. 

[johnindallas]

I should have said "I WISH I still had my A-List Preferred status..."

[DancingDavidE]

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@johnindallas wrote:

I should have said "I WISH I still had my A-List Preferred status..."

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I have had an issue before where it wouldn’t authenticate my login but sometimes it would work if I went back and activated the free texting first and then returned to the ALP login it would connect. 

Not sure about BS login but the workaround might be the same. Allowing the free texting opens the pathway through the internet that allows the credentials to be exchanged which is needed to approve the access.

[stevenrollinson]

Hey @DancingDavidE 

Do you happen to recall what error message you were getting before you activated texting? And have you flown in the past 30 days and are still having this issue?

We're always working to improve things behind the scenes...

[DancingDavidE]

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@stevenrollinson wrote:

Hey @DancingDavidE 

Do you happen to recall what error message you were getting before you activated texting? And have you flown in the past 30 days and are still having this issue?

We're always working to improve things behind the scenes...

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Just over a month ago at the end of September. I think the workaround did work that time. I forget if it shows an error, I should have taken a screenshot. I think it was more of a failed to authenticate and hung up.

The symptom is as if the login credentials are being sent but they won't transmit without the internet. 

Activating free texting seems to open that portal for the credentials to exchanged.

[CompanionPass]

Since the refresh, the free internet seems broken. Prior, I successfully logged in probably more than a hundred times. I’ve tried on multiple flight and multiple devices. The fields to input my credentials do not show and instead “Revving things up! Please wait.” shows. Passengers paying for internet works on the same flight. The supposedly improved interface looks nice, but it does not work. I’ve tried all the usual work arounds and nothing worked.

[CompanionPass]

I should have noted that on two out of a couple dozen flights it did successfully make it out of the “Revving things up! Please wait.” and I was able to login for the free internet.

[bec102896]

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@CompanionPass wrote:

Since the refresh, the free internet seems broken. Prior, I successfully logged in probably more than a hundred times. I’ve tried on multiple flight and multiple devices. The fields to input my credentials do not show and instead “Revving things up! Please wait.” shows. Passengers paying for internet works on the same flight. The supposedly improved interface looks nice, but it does not work. I’ve tried all the usual work arounds and nothing worked.

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Did you try to accept the terms for texting trick? 

[CompanionPass]

I didn’t know that was a trick! I will definitely try that again. I say “again” because I accidentally tried that, and it worked a few flight ago, but I thought it was just a coincidence. Thanks for the tip. I’m new to being engaged here, so I haven’t seen all the discussions on this topic yet. BTW, I’m posting this while currently airborne on SWA and it worked fine this time. Cheers!