Singapore Airlines inflight Wi-Fi & mobile connectivity guide

In July 2023, Singapore Airlines became the first airline in Asia to offer complimentary unlimited Wi-Fi to passengers across all cabins.

SIA has certainly come a long way since its early experiments with the technology, which started all the way back in 2001 with the cheesily named CyberCabin. And despite a few missteps along the way — who can forget the US$1,500 bill a passenger incurred when trying to upload a PowerPoint file — those investments are finally bearing fruit.

In this post, we’ll cover all you need to know about Wi-Fi and inflight connectivity on your upcoming Singapore Airlines flight. 

Which Singapore Airlines aircraft offer inflight Wi-Fi?

Inflight Connectivity

Singapore Airlines offers Wi-Fi across almost its entire fleet, with the exception of five B737-800 aircraft, leftovers from the SilkAir days.  

There is no plan to install Wi-Fi on these aircraft, as they are due to be phased out in the near future. 

The five active B737-800s have the following registration numbers, so you can track where they’re flying:

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

At the time of writing, these aircraft are plying short-haul routes to Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Phuket and Siem Reap, where the loss of connectivity for 1-2 hours hopefully won’t be that big a deal. However, they also serve Kathmandu, which at 4 hours 30 minutes might be stretching your limits!

Which passengers enjoy free Wi-Fi?

Suites, First and Business Class passengers enjoy complimentary unlimited Wi-Fi, period.

Premium Economy and Economy Class passengers enjoy complimentary unlimited Wi-Fi provided they add their Solitaire PPS Club, PPS Club or KrisFlyer membership number to their booking.

This can be done at the time of booking, during online or airport check-in, at the lounge, or at the boarding gate. In other words, the membership number needs to be reflected on your boarding pass.

It used to be the case that if you forgot to do this, it would be too late to do anything once onboard. But now there’s a new dialogue box that allows KrisFlyer members to redeem an onboard code to access Wi-Fi. 

It can be tempting to leave your frequent flyer number off a redemption ticket since you won’t earn miles on the flight anyway, but if the ticket is in Premium Economy or Economy Class, no membership number means no free Wi-Fi.

What if you want to earn miles with a different programme?

If you’re flying on a commercial Premium Economy or Economy Class ticket and want to credit your miles to a different frequent flyer programme while still enjoying free Wi-Fi, it’s possible.

When you check-in online, put your KrisFlyer membership number under the Frequent Flyer Details section, then check the box labelled “I want to earn miles on another frequent flyer programme”. In this field, enter the programme you want to accrue miles with.

The technical term for this is FQTS/FQTV splitting, and you can read more about it in the post below. 

Singapore Airlines website now supports FQTV/FQTS splitting

How much do paid Wi-Fi plans cost?

If you’re a Premium Economy or Economy Class passenger who does not attach a PPS Club or KrisFlyer membership number to their booking, you will need to buy a paid Wi-Fi plan. 

All plans are now time-based, a welcome change from the pre-COVID era where you’d pay US$15.99 for a 200MB plan which would disappear in the blink of an eye.

Wi-Fi plans aren’t particularly expensive, but again, there’s no reason why you should be paying. Even if you wanted to accrue miles with a different programme, you could do so via the FQTV/FQTS splitting method described in the section above, keeping your KrisFlyer number on the booking for free Wi-Fi. 

The only edge case I can think of is where someone wants to enjoy Star Gold benefits with Programme A and wants to accrue miles with Programme B, where neither A nor B are KrisFlyer. In that case then yes, you’ll have to pay for Wi-Fi when in Premium Economy and Economy Class. 

How many devices can connect at one time?

If you’re flying on an aircraft with the SITAOnAir system, only a single device can be connected to the network at a time.

If you’re flying on an aircraft with the Panasonic system, you can connect up to three devices simultaneously to your complimentary Wi-Fi plan, depending on your cabin and status.

Paid Wi-Fi plans cannot be shared, regardless of system.

Now, all that having been said, there is a workaround. To overcome the sharing limit, you can connect your mobile phone to the Wi-Fi network and then activate its hotspot feature to share the connection with other devices. This has always worked fine on my Google Pixel 6, 7 and 9 Pro devices, with the tethered devices not counting towards the connection limit

Mobile data via cellular service

In addition to Wi-Fi, you can also get data connectivity through your mobile phone. Singapore Airlines aircraft equipped with Wi-Fi systems provide cell service through either OnAir or AeroMobile. 

Unlike Wi-Fi plans, these will cover multiple flights within the subscription window (because the allowance is tied to your mobile number, as opposed to your flight number). 

While mobile data may appear to be the better deal (especially if you’re on Singtel) compared to paid Wi-Fi plans, I should warn you that speeds are much slower than Wi-Fi. It’s barely 3G, and I reckon most people would be happier with Wi-Fi instead.

But even if you don’t plan to use mobile data, it’s still good to have mobile network service onboard because it allows you to receive SMS OTPs as per normal. There is no charge for receiving SMS inflight.

Where is coverage available?

For Wi-Fi systems powered by SITAOnAir, coverage is available around the world except when flying over India, Iran and Turkish airspace.

Panasonic systems enjoy global Wi-Fi coverage.

Do note that services will also be unavailable when the aircraft is flying over certain areas, like the polar regions. This affects the following flights:

What kind of speeds can you expect?

Wi-Fi speeds vary depending on a lot of factors such as weather, altitude, and location, but in my general experience I’ve found them to be average at best. 

I have never gotten anything faster than download speeds of 8 Mbps with SITAOnAir, and 5 Mbps with the Panasonic systems. Don’t expect to be streaming Netflix or YouTube (both apps are blocked in any case), or doing anything beyond regular web browsing and email. If you want to watch your own videos, be sure to download them to your device before boarding.

With other carriers like Qatar Airways and United now claiming triple-digits speeds through Starlink, Singapore Airlines is in danger of being left behind.

Conclusion

Singapore Airlines offers free unlimited Wi-Fi to all its First, Suites and Business Class passengers, as well as Premium Economy and Economy Class passengers who attach a PPS Club or KrisFlyer membership number to their booking.

If you don’t wish to do so, for whatever reason, then paid plans are available starting from US$3.99 for 1 hour and maxing out at US$15.99 for the full flight.

The only aircraft that lack connectivity are the B737-800s, but these will disappear from the fleet in the near future.

My only wish is that connection speeds were faster. It’s surreal to be blogging from 35,000 feet, but the frustration quickly sets in when everything slows to a crawl. Hopefully Singapore Airlines will join the numerous carriers partnering with Starlink, and make triple-digit speeds a reality.