Hello from JFK! I’m currently waiting for my JetBlue flight to depart from New York, and arrive at London Heathrow this evening. Obviously there’ll be plenty from the flight to share, but I wanted to start with a little tip that could potentially be super handy to some.
Specifically, I’ll talk about my experience connecting to FlyFi, where a neat little trick can help most iPhone users connect easily. If you’re on a JetBlue flight and your JetBlue WiFi’s not working for you, this tip might help.
JetBlue offers free WiFi on all planes
JetBlue is a cool New York airline, and albeit being the eighth biggest airline in the U.S., they still manage to come across with a “boutique” feel. JetBlue leads the industry in offering free WiFi onboard all of their aircraft. In most cases this WiFi will be gate-to-gate, though there are some cases where it might take a bit longer for WiFi to activate.
The connection process is also easy, in theory. You connect, type “FlyFi.com” into your browser, watch a 30-second video ad (which gives JetBlue a bit of revenue from this offering), and then you’re connected. Sounds easy, right?
JetBlue WiFi not working? Use your incognito browser
File this under “this sounds obvious, but you probably wouldn’t know”.
With one of the latest iPhone updates, Safari was automatically installed with a content blocker. Turns out that the built-in iPhone content blocker blocks JetBlue from collecting your ad revenue, which in turn prevents you from connecting. After watching the 30-second ad, you’ll just get a “sorry, we’ve had some trouble connecting you to the Internet” message.
The key is to use your phone’s incognito/Private Mode browser to load the FlyFi.com page, where the content blocker isn’t automatically installed. Once I did so, the portal was immediately able to connect me to the Internet, and I was able to surf and text even when I wasn’t in incognito mode.
The WiFi was certainly some of the fastest WiFi I’ve ever had onboard an aircraft, reaching a 50.76 Mbps download speed (though only 0.50 Mbps up).
Weirdly, albeit having AdBlock on my laptop, I didn’t encounter the same issue.
Trying to connect to WiFi on a JetBlue flight? Try using Incognito/private browsing to connect
Conclusion
JetBlue offers industry-leading free WiFi on all flights – all you have to do is enter “FlyFi.com” on your browser, and watch a short ad. Some ad blocking softwares prevent JetBlue from actually logging you onto the WiFi system afterwards.
Fortunately there’s a workaround, just load FlyFi.com in incognito or private browsing, watch the ad, and you’re good to go.
Great tip! It’s frustrating when Wi-Fi doesn’t work as expected, especially on a long flight. I’ll definitely keep this in mind for my next JetBlue flight.
It would be helpful to know if this trick works consistently for other airlines with similar in-flight Wi-Fi systems.
Thanks for sharing this valuable information!
Thank for your great article post
Hello from JFK! Sounds like an exciting journey ahead. I’m curious to hear more about your experience with JetBlue’s FlyFi, especially if you have a trick to make connecting easier for iPhone users