Singapore Airlines expands free unlimited inflight Wi-Fi to all cabins

Singapore Airlines has announced that it will offer unlimited complimentary inflight Wi-Fi to customers in all cabin classes, effective 1 July 2023.

“In today’s increasingly hyper-connected world, high-speed in-flight Wi-Fi connectivity is one of the most important requirements for our customers. Giving them access to free unlimited Wi-Fi is yet another milestone in SIA’s continuous effort to offer an exceptional end-to-end travel experience.

With this enhanced offering, our customers will be empowered to stay connected, entertained, and productive, even at 36,000 feet in the sky.”

-Yeoh Phee Teik, SVP for Customer Experience at SIA

While this was already a perk for Suites, First and Business Class customers, as well as PPS Club members, it’s a major upgrade for Premium Economy and Economy Class customers who are currently limited to just 2-3 hours of free access.

This makes Singapore Airlines one of only a few global carriers to offer free unlimited Wi-Fi throughout all cabins.

Singapore Airlines extends free unlimited Wi-Fi to all cabins

Singapore Airlines currently offers free unlimited Wi-Fi to Suites, First and Business Class passengers, as well as PPS Club members flying in any cabin. KrisFlyer members are entitled to three and two hours of free access when flying in Premium Economy and Economy respectively.

From 1 July 2023, all passengers will enjoy unlimited complimentary access, regardless of cabin.

To enjoy complimentary access in Premium Economy or Economy, passengers, must provide their PPS Club/KrisFlyer membership number at the time of booking, or at check-in. In other words, your membership number needs to appear on your boarding pass; by the time you board the plane, it’s too late to do anything.

Do take note of this especially if you’re redeeming award tickets. Since award tickets don’t earn mileage, I often neglect to attach a frequent flyer number to them. But forgetting to do so on a Premium Economy/Economy Class award ticket would mean no free Wi-Fi. Don’t let this happen to you!

Joining KrisFlyer is free, and can be done via this link.

Complimentary access is limited to one device at a time, but that shouldn’t be any impediment. What I’ve found works best is connecting my Android phone to the aircraft’s Wi-Fi network, then activating the mobile hotspot to share it with my laptop and second phone.

Singapore Airlines’ paid Wi-Fi plans

If you don’t attach a PPS Club/KrisFlyer membership number to your booking for whatever reason, you’ll need to pay for Wi-Fi in Premium Economy and Economy Class.

Prices are as follows:

All plans are only valid on a single flight sector, and cannot be paused. For example, a plan purchased on SQ12 from Singapore to Tokyo (Narita) cannot be used on the next sector of the same flight from Tokyo (Narita) to Los Angeles.

Alternatively, you can purchase a mobile data plan with Singtel, Starhub or M1, though the connection speeds leave something to be desired.

Which Singapore Airlines aircraft offer Wi-Fi?

Singapore Airlines has invested heavily in inflight connectivity over the past few years, and it’s starting to pay dividends. With the retirement of the A330-300s, B777-200s and B777-200ERs during the pandemic, Wi-Fi is available on virtually every aircraft in the fleet. 

The sole exception are the B737-800s, of which there are seven in active service at the time of writing: 

• 9V-MGC
• 9V-MGD
• 9V-MGE
• 9V-MGK
• 9V-MGL
• 9V-MGM
• 9V-MGN

These can only be found on the Kuala Lumpur and Phuket routes (with Penang to start from June), relatively short hops where constant connectivity is arguably less important. 

Singapore Airlines intends to return these aircraft to lessors as the operating leases expire between September 2024 to January 2026, so unfortunately we haven’t seen the last of these just yet.

Conclusion

Singapore Airlines will be introducing free unlimited Wi-Fi across all cabin classes from 1 July 2023 onwards. While this was already a perk for premium cabin and PPS Club members, it’s great news for passengers in Premium Economy and Economy Class, who were previously limited to a 2-3 hour package. 

This is inevitably going to cause further strain on the bandwidth, but I’m sure the airline will have done its stress testing beforehand. To those flying from July onwards, do let us know how things are holding up!