Southwest Airlines and DISH Launch Free In-Flight TV

Free iPads? Wow.

I fly southwest all the time. Many times I fly home in the late afternoon on the west coast. It is usually during this time that any significant sporting events are on TV, and I miss them. I caught the last 30 seconds of game 6 of the NBA finals after I landed, but I was following on gamecast on espn the entire flight. I'm VERY excited to hear about this new partnership.

Oh, and I'm happy for all the passengers of that flight who got free iPads. Dish deserves some kudos for that one.

Now I can watch "Snakes on a Plane" while flying .

Nice news, as a frequent (A-List Preferred) Southwest flyer.

But I'm becoming less frequent... their fare prices have escalated alarmingly.

pretty cool news.
We are taking SW in Sept for a trip to Disney.

I flew to Vegas on SW over the weekend and they had this

The catch is you still have to pay $8 for Wi-Fi

Liquorpuki said:

I flew to Vegas on SW over the weekend and they had this

The catch is you still have to pay $8 for Wi-Fi

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You don't "have to." Wifi and streaming TV are separate. If you don't have email/twitter/facebook/tumblr/macrumors to tend to, then you can kick back and watch a little tv at no cost. Maybe if you are nice, the flight attendants will even bring you a coke.

awesome promo...

what a fantastic promotion!!!

This is awesome news and perfect timing. I'm flying home to Chicago in just a few hours! Can't wait to try this out.

Free iPad, wow, that beats an "in-flight refreshment" any day.

ToomeyND said:

You don't "have to." Wifi and streaming TV are separate. If you don't have email/twitter/facebook/tumblr/macrumors to tend to, then you can kick back and watch a little tv at no cost. Maybe if you are nice, the flight attendants will even bring you a coke.

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This is correct. I flew Southwest this weekend and was able to watch live TV and on-demand TV Shows without purchasing WiFi. The picture quality on my iPad Mini was excellent. Only complaint: their TV Channel selection is pretty slim. Ended up watching several episodes of "The Office" on-demand instead.

TV Cameraman said:

This is correct. I flew Southwest this weekend and was able to watch live TV and on-demand TV Shows without purchasing WiFi. The picture quality on my iPad Mini was excellent. Only complaint: their TV Channel selection is pretty slim. Ended up watching several episodes of "The Office" on-demand instead.

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I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this new program with Dish will include more channels than the NBC family.

sjinsjca said:

Nice news, as a frequent (A-List Preferred) Southwest flyer.

But I'm becoming less frequent... their fare prices have escalated alarmingly.

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Not only that but since they added an extra row there's no legroom at all.

dittman said:

Not only that but since they added an extra row there's no legroom at all.

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Not entirely true since the seat cushions are now thinner. I usually fly Southwest but was on an American flight over the weekend. The legroom was worse than Southwest since they decided to add a few rows of "Main Cabin Extra."

KPOM said:

Not entirely true since the seat cushions are now thinner. I usually fly Southwest but was on an American flight over the weekend. The legroom was worse than Southwest since they decided to add a few rows of "Main Cabin Extra."

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The thinner cushions on SW make them too low for me. That was another complaint I had, plus I felt like the seat was trying to make me slide forward It was a very odd feeling. The flight was less than half full so I moved around to a few other seats to see if maybe I just had a bad seat but they were all like that.

I've flown on AA since they added rows and had more legroom than I had on my most recent SW flight. Plus on AA and other airlines I can opt for more legroom by paying more, which is worth it to me.

I'm waiting for JetBlue and Virgin America to start flying routes to places I travel. I've got friends that fly on them and have nothing but good things to say.

The only issue I have is the content.

There is really nothing there for children* outside of a 90 - 120 minute movie, which their attention span will not last that long to be seated watching an iPad.

Sprout? PBS Kids (especially if having Dowton Abbey, a PBS show itself)? qubo? Even Cartoon Network may be an option.. But if this is in the NBC family, qubo is definitely part of it, IIRC.

This could definitely keep not only the kids occupied, but keep those complaining about kids on flights shut up and occupied as well.

BL.

*children under 5, toddlers, etc.

dittman said:

The thinner cushions on SW make them too low for me. That was another complaint I had, plus I felt like the seat was trying to make me slide forward It was a very odd feeling. The flight was less than half full so I moved around to a few other seats to see if maybe I just had a bad seat but they were all like that.

I've flown on AA since they added rows and had more legroom than I had on my most recent SW flight. Plus on AA and other airlines I can opt for more legroom by paying more, which is worth it to me.

I'm waiting for JetBlue and Virgin America to start flying routes to places I travel. I've got friends that fly on them and have nothing but good things to say.

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I've flown JetBlue. The planes are nice, but they are limited and their strategy of locating at airports like JFK just begs for delays. Virgin anything is supposed to be good. They are niche airlines, though.

I can't say I agree with every move Gary Kelly has made (e.g. the new no-show policy is too harsh, IMO), but among the big airlines Southwest is still the best, IMO. I don't like the "Economy Plus" sections on other airlines. First, they provide almost too much legroom (short of being able to lie down), putting the table too far away, without adding a millimeter of width. Second, all the status holders get them for "free" meaning that fewer are available, and the rest of us just get 2 fewer inches than normal.

Beyond that, Southwest has other advantages. Open seating just makes a lot of sense to me. The employees seem to like working there (I couldn't say that about the flight attendants on my American flight the other day). They are pretty good about fees, too. Most of their ancillary fees are for things most people can live without (e.g. early bird check-in). The biggest difference is that Southwest actively discourages standby since they only allow it with full fares. It probably hurts them with business travelers but it also helps make it easier for them to predict flight volumes.

I've taken advantage of the "no change fee" policy a lot. As soon as I know I'm traveling for business, I'm on the site making a reservation, knowing that I can change it later if something comes up. The other airlines like to nickel-and-dime, with some of the worst ones even charging for carry-on luggage and non-alcoholic beverages. It will be interesting to see if others follow Southwest's lead and strike deals with media companies to offer entertainment with no extra fees.

I'm sure they'll increase ticket fare in a few weeks to make up for the lost revenue and use the commercials as extra money.

It upsets me how much airfare costs these days. I used to pay $99 from NYC to Maimi booking not even a month ahead. Now it's $400-600 if you don't catch a promo.

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dittman said:

The thinner cushions on SW make them too low for me. That was another complaint I had, plus I felt like the seat was trying to make me slide forward It was a very odd feeling. The flight was less than half full so I moved around to a few other seats to see if maybe I just had a bad seat but they were all like that.

I've flown on AA since they added rows and had more legroom than I had on my most recent SW flight. Plus on AA and other airlines I can opt for more legroom by paying more, which is worth it to me.

I'm waiting for JetBlue and Virgin America to start flying routes to places I travel. I've got friends that fly on them and have nothing but good things to say.

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I know that feeling. I'm 6'2" and its bad enough sitting, if someone reclines, it makes for a very uncomfortable flight. Especially if you are squeezed between a person on the left and right hand side of you.

unplugme71 said:

I'm sure they'll increase ticket fare in a few weeks to make up for the lost revenue and use the commercials as extra money.

It upsets me how much airfare costs these days. I used to pay $99 from NYC to Maimi booking not even a month ahead. Now it's $400-600 if you don't catch a promo.

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There are still some competitive routes (e.g. Chicago-New York). It's all a matter of whether multiple airlines have hubs or large operations there.

Southwest used to charge $5 for the TV option. I'm guessing they won't pass this along in higher fares, since the trend in the industry is to add fees, and Southwest is already at a comparative disadvantage since they don't separately charge for the first two bags, reservation changes, etc. and they can't upsell larger seats (though they have been trying to sell A1-A15 boarding positions for $40). As it stands, people compare the top line fare and see Southwest at or near the top (airlines are usually within a few dollars of each other, if not exactly the same). Trying to tack on another $3-5 to the base fare won't fly. Dish probably sees this as a marketing expense. What's more likely is that they use this to get people used to watching TV and then quietly discontinue the promotion next year and see how many people pay the extra $5 onboard.

The $99 NYC to Miami flights went the way of $1.50 gas (and for largely the same reason). The industry hasn't quite come full circle, but there has been a lot of consolidation. While I don't like paying higher fares, either, the old model was unsustainable as it drove every major airline except Southwest into bankruptcy. We have fewer airlines, but healthier ones. I think over the next decade we'll see the cycle turn again, and some startups attempt to occupy the niches left behind by the major carriers.