I tested Air Canada’s free in-flight Wi-Fi by posting from the sky

Earlier this month, Air Canada launched free in-flight Wi-Fi for Aeroplan members. On my flight home from attending Microsoft Build in Seattle, Washinton, I decided to put it to the test and blog from the sky.

Getting set up is really easy — just connect to the ACWiFi network from your device. It should automatically prompt you to sign in with your browser. The page you go to has an option for Aeroplan members, where you punch in your last name and seat number, and then you’re good to go. If you’re not an Aeroplan member, you can pay $8 to connect if you’re not an Aeroplan member, but since Aeroplan is free, you might as well sign up for that before your flight so you can connect for free.

Once connected, I put the in-flight Wi-Fi through its paces. I ran an Ookla Speedtest and was surprised to pull about 56Mbps down and 10Mbps up. While the speed was respectable overall, the ping was pretty high at 819ms, which contributed to some pretty noticeable latency.

In fact, the Wi-Fi overall felt pretty slow, with some sites not loading entirely. Typically, pictures and other heftier content didn’t load properly, but text was mostly fine. But I had virtually no issue loading up the backend of our website to write this post and was even able to upload the photos included in this story

The Wi-Fi also worked great for streaming music and podcasts, though I noticed the occasional delay between when one song ended and the next started. Messaging services also worked, and I was able to chat with family and friends via RCS and Discord, and my coworkers with Slack. Email was also fine, but social media was pretty hit and miss. Bluesky and Reddit, for example, loaded on my laptop but wouldn’t load on my phone. I was able to play two TikTok videos before that stopped working, and surprisingly, I was even able to load up and play a YouTube video.

Update May 20, 2025 at 4:35 p.m. ET: Turns out some of the social apps like Bluesky and Reddit weren’t working on my phone because you can only connect once device at a time. So when I connected my laptop to the Aeroplan Wi-Fi, my phone was disconnected, and vice-versa. Not a huge deal overall, but something to be aware of for anyone travelling with multiple devices.

All this is to say the Wi-Fi on my Air Canada flight was pretty decent overall, though certainly not perfect. It’s good enough that most people can enjoy streaming some tunes or podcasts without worry, or even browse some social media or get some work done, as long as they don’t rely on heavy-duty internet tasks. If you’re flying any time soon, you should make sure you’re signed up for Aeroplan to take advantage of the free Wi-Fi.