Why does my Verizon Galaxy 4 keep dropping my wifi connection on Southwest flights?

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Verizon Galaxy 4 keeps dropping WiFi connection on Southwest flights.

My Verizon Galaxy 4 phone, which has always been working fine, just started disconnecting from the free Free TV WiFi connection after ~5 minutes.
I then have to go back in and reconnect to 'Southwest WiFi', only to again be disconnected each time after 5 minutes.. This makes it unusable on the plane. Any suggestions?
 
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Re: Verizon Galaxy 4 keeps dropping WiFi connection on Southwest flights.

Welcome to Android Central! Does that happen with any other wi-fi connections? There's a good chance it has more to do with the plane's wi-fi than with your phone. Wi-fi on planes still needs some work--I was recently on a Virgin America flight that boasted up to 9 Mbps download speeds, but this was a gross exaggeration. It felt more like a dialup connection, and there were lots of timeout errors.
 
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Same issue here. My phone wanted me to "sign in" to southwest, which costs money. I just wanted the free tv service, but my phone timed out since I wouldn't sign in.
 
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On Southwest, for the free TV, you're supposed to install Onboard Player, but when I tried this on my Nexus 7, it didn't work at all. It's easier to access the free TV using a laptop (I used my Chromebook).
 
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I found this thread by Google search. I was wondering whether anyone had any idea. I also have Verizon Galaxy S4.

No rooting or anything special has been done. Connects to my home WiFi without issue. Admittedly, I rarely use WiFi with the phone, since I still have unlimited data.

This happened on my four (out of four) flights in the last week. In at least one case, the two people next to me were watching TV via the WiFi on their tablets (one iPad, one unknown tablet). Didn't appear to drop their WiFi connection at all.

The problem the OP and I are mentioning is NOT a problem with the onboard player. This is a non-stop disconnection of WiFi. Mine typically disconnected within 45 seconds. Sometimes would stay connected long enough to check flight status (checking connection status due to weather-delayed flights).

It has worked relatively well on past flights, so something must have changed.

If anyone has any ideas about why my Verizon Galaxy S4 disconnected from the Southwest Airlines WiFi so much, I would love to hear it.
 
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This only happens with my Samsung Galaxy 4 phone which used to work on SWA all the time. Just recently started disconnecting from the free TV WiFi connection now every 2 minutes making it totally useless. My laptop works fine but I don't care to have it on my lap on the plane. Verizon was no help.
 
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Android versions, everyone, please, so we can see if there's any common denominator. "It doesn't work" doesn't give us much to help you with, "it doesn't work since I updated to xxx " tells us what the problem is, if everyone having the problem started having it only after updating..
 
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I have a Note 4 running 4.4.4 and started having this disconnect problem a few weeks ago. I never had this problem before and haven't updated or rooted my device before encountering it.

Southwest wi-fi used to work great and the first time it happened I thought it might just be that particular plane. I fly multiple times a week and something about their wi-fi has changed.
 
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Galaxy S4 running android 4.4.2. Southwest WiFi keeps disconnecting. Last update was in December 2014 and had several successful flights on Southwest from August to November. Not sure how to fix. Any work arounds?
 
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I had the same issue with my galaxy s5. I fly weekly and it worked on sw before I performed the lollipop update. Stays comnected for about 3 minutes then drops. It thanks I need to sign-in.
 
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