Southwest Just Trialed Free Wi-Fi — But Don’t Get Too Excited Yet

Updated: May 6, 2025, 8:30am CDT

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Southwest Airlines Tested Free Wi-Fi
How Southwest’s Free Wi-Fi Fared
Don’t Expect Free Wi-Fi on Southwest Flights Anytime Soon
Final Thoughts

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Southwest Airlines just offered free Wi-Fi for a few days, including a flight I was on. If my experience was any indication, the airline has a lot of work to do before rolling out free Wi-Fi permanently.

The airline shared that it will use the data from this limited-time trial to make decisions for the future. Testing how well the planes’ Wi-Fi systems performed when more people tried to use them will tell the airline where it stands and what work will be needed to offer free Wi-Fi permanently.

From unreliable connections to slow speeds and system resets, here’s what I experienced on my flight from Orange County (SNA) to Dallas (DAL).

Southwest Airlines Tested Free Wi-Fi

From May 1 to May 5, 2025, Southwest Airlines ran a free Wi-Fi trial on its flights. The complimentary inflight internet was accessible to all passengers, regardless of Rapid Rewards membership, as no account was needed to join the Wi-Fi network.

Travelers simply needed to join the plane’s network and click the “Access the portal” button on the pop-up window.

Southwest Airiines free wifi portal page — Image Credit: Southwest Airlines

When I navigated to southwestwifi.com, the message “Limited time free internet trial!” appeared. Clicking the “Activate” button led to a page that said the service was free on my flight.

Southwest Airiines free wifi log in page — Image Credit: Southwest

All I needed to do was provide my first and last name and email address, though I didn’t need to receive a code or verify my email.

How Southwest’s Free Wi-Fi Fared

Though Southwest is changing its Wi-Fi provider from Anuvu to Viasat, my Boeing 737-700 was still stuck with the old Anuvu system — and the internet performance showed it. The system reset itself several times, and it wasn’t working during the first half hour of our flight.

After multiple resets from the flight attendants, the “SouthwestWiFi” network finally appeared. Due to the number of users accessing the service, it took over 15 minutes to connect.

Once connected, the speeds were slow, averaging around 3 Mbps for downloads. The speed test I attempted to run from my laptop never finished because the upload element timed out.

Southwest Airiines free wifi incomplete speed test — Image Credit: Speedtest.net

The test worked on my phone, providing the same speed of 3 Mbps.

Southwest Airiines free wifi speed test mobile — Image Credit: Speedtest.net

Based on my experience and talking to others around me, using a phone was far more reliable than using a laptop. That’s unfortunate since people attempting to work from their laptops had more difficulty using the internet, even when closing all unnecessary apps and tabs on their computers. Attempting to use Slack or other messaging apps only made the problem worse.

In summary, on a 3-hour flight from John Wayne Airport (SNA) to Dallas Love Field (DAL), the internet was unusable or unreliable more often than it worked to perform basic tasks.

Don’t Expect Free Wi-Fi on Southwest Flights Anytime Soon

As airlines race to provide fast, complimentary internet for their passengers, some are much closer to that goal than others.

United Airlines is launching free Starlink Wi-Fi for its passengers, and Qatar Airways is doing the same. JSX already has Starlink on all of its flights, and it’s ultra-fast. American Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, and Delta are also working on free inflight Wi-Fi for their passengers, approaching the task in different ways.

Could Southwest simply flip a switch and make the internet free on its flights? Yes. Would that be a good idea? Not right now, no way.

On my flight, the network couldn’t support the number of people trying to access it. Flight attendants made announcements about the availability of free Wi-Fi before takeoff and once the system was working, ensuring people knew they could use it. That generated a heavier burden on the system than it normally experiences, as more people joined the network, causing it to suffer.

Bottom Line:

Right now, Southwest’s Wi-Fi is strong enough to support the handful of passengers willing to pay for it — or who have complimentary access through their elite status or by buying Business Select fares. However, the system clearly can’t handle dozens of people using it at once, even though I estimate that fewer than one-third of the passengers attempted to use the Wi-Fi on my flight.

Final Thoughts

The free Wi-Fi experiment on my Southwest flight didn’t go so well. I struggled to perform the simplest tasks on a 3-hour flight from California to Texas. The plane’s Wi-Fi couldn’t support dozens of users at once and shut down more than once because of the number of users.

I expect it will be a long time before we see Southwest announce complimentary Wi-Fi on all flights as a permanent feature.