My Experience Using Apple Music on American Airlines

In January, I wrote a post that announced American Airlines was introducing Apple Music to customers while inflight. The access was restricted to only those aircraft equipped with Viasat. On a recent flight between Dallas/Fort Worth and Tampa, I had the opportunity to experience Apple Music for the first time. Full disclosure, I have some albums purchased through Apple Music, but had not used the streaming service prior to this flight.

Once we were airborne, I connected to the Viasat WiFi on the American Airlines’ A321. The first thing that I saw was a pop-up to view 12 free live television channels.

While the television was tempting, I was excited to check out the functionality of Apple Music. I closed the pop-up to access the main screen. This screen included flight information, Apple Music, and WiFi purchase options.

After accessing the Apple Music application, I was allowed to browse without signing up for the free trial. I assume this is to allow customers to window shop. The main item being promoted was Solange’s film, When I Get Home. I clicked through the banner at the top of the screen.

The next page included yet another description of the Apple Music deal. I think it was a bit of overkill at this point, but whatever. It took me seconds to click to get to the next page.

The next page was where I had the option to select the type of Apple Music subscription. The subscriptions were individual, family, or college student. I selected the individual plan, but looking back on it, I should have tried to select the college plan. The family plan seemed like the best option, if you needed multiple subscriptions.

From there, I was taken to a page where I could select the genres of music that interested me. If the genre was not listed, I was the given option to select genres from another page.

After selecting my genres, I found myself on a page where I could select individual artists. This was done to further define my playlists. As you can see, my musical pallete is wide ranging.

At this point, I was final able to start streaming music. The first album I found was 2 Chainz’s new album, Rap or Go to the League. I listened to the album in its entirety and really enjoyed it.

Final Word

The entire sign up process took less than 10 minutes and was relatively painless. This is quite reasonable when the flight was well over two hours. I enjoyed how I could tailor my playlists. American Airlines and Apple hit a homerun by partnering to offer this service inflight.