American Airlines Offers ‘Wi-Fi Finder’ Widget

Taking another step on the long, tortuous road toward full Internet access onboard airliners, American Airlines said it has rolled out a “Wi-Fi Finder” widget that allows passengers to check whether their flight will be offering the service. American’s in-flight WiFi is powered by the Gogo service from Aircell.

American said it now has 165 planes that provide flyers with Wi-Fi, less than one-quarter of its fleet.

The Gogo WiFi service costs $12.95 for a 24-hour pass, and $6 for a short-haul flight of 90 minutes or less. There are a couple of catches to the Wi-Fi finder widget: Passengers can only check for Internet access within 24 hours of their flight, meaning that it’s rather hard to base your travel plans on the availability of Wi-Fi.