New American Airlines Widget Flags Wi-Fi Equipped Flights

The American Airlines Web site now has a Wi-Fi widget that lets customers identify Wi-Fi-equipped flights 24 hours before departure.

You enter your flight number or select your flight's departure airport from a drop- down menu to find out if your flight is scheduled on a Wi-Fi-equipped plane.

American has the Aircell Gogo Wi-Fi system on 165 of the 620 airplanes in its mainline fleet -- 150 MD-80s and 15 Boeing 767-200s. The Gogo system is land-based and isn't offered on international flights.

In August 2008, American became the first U.S. airline to launch the Gogo service, but Delta Air Lines now offers the service on more flights than American. By the end of the year, Delta plans to offer the service on 300 mainline domestic aircraft.

Other airlines with Gogo service are Virgin America and AirTran, which have it on all flights, and United, which offers it on some New York-Los Angeles and New York-San Francisco flights.

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