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A story about bypassing air Canada's in-flight network restrictions

(ramsayleung.github.io)
137 points samray | 4 comments | 10 Oct 25 07:50 UTC | HN request time: 0.988s | source
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andy99 ◴[10 Oct 25 11:37 UTC] No.45537729[source]▶
> The only downside was that although we broke through the network restrictions and could access any website, the plane’s bandwidth was extremely limited, making web browsing quite painful.

Unfortunately this is also the downside of paying. Many times I have paid for internet, only to find it unusably bad. To be fair, I just flew a transcontinental flight on Air Canada the other day and the wifi was fine.

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1. sheepscreek ◴[10 Oct 25 12:45 UTC] No.45538362[source]▶
I’ve been the unfortunate one who paid and endured the slow-barely-usable/mostly unusable speeds. However, that was before the Starlink era. So if you’re gonna pay for WiFi, it’s worth checking if the flight is equipped with Starlink.
replies(1): >>45540113 #
2. mjr00 ◴[10 Oct 25 15:28 UTC] No.45540113[source]▶
Yeah, I just flew WestJet from Canada to Honolulu and was amazed; full 1080p YouTube with no hiccups and I was able to play some (non-latency sensitive) online games, all over the Pacific. This was fully intentional; there wasn't any back-of-the-seat iPad for watching movies or anything, they straight up tell you to use your own device and watch Netflix. I did some research after and found a lot of airlines in NA are going to be rolling out satellite internet in the next year or two.

For some reason, being fully connected at 50mbps+ on a plane seems more futuristic sci-fi to me than everything AI.

replies(1): >>45540245 #
3. badc0ffee ◴[10 Oct 25 15:42 UTC] No.45540245[source]▶
> This was fully intentional; there wasn't any back-of-the-seat iPad for watching movies or anything, they straight up tell you to use your own device and watch Netflix.

Westjet has required you to use your own device for a long time now (10 years?), but they offer an app/website and streaming library that works for anyone who connects to the in-plane wifi, unrelated to actual access to the internet.

Interesting that they're telling you to use your own streaming app/account now. Did you still have to pay extra for internet access? Was the Westjet streaming app still available?

replies(1): >>45541595 #
4. mjr00 ◴[10 Oct 25 17:37 UTC] No.45541595{3}[source]▶
Nope, wifi was free. Well, have to sign up for WestJet rewards, so the price is your personal data and such. No WestJet streaming option, the information card in the backseat tells you to use your own Netflix account; yes, literally mentioning Netflix by name.