One Critical Thing I Learned on the American 787 Dreamliner Flight

I got lucky today! I grabbed a seat on one of the American 787 Dreamliner inaugural flights. The Same Day Change feature came through yesterday, allowing me to grab an open seat on the return ORD-DFW segment.

And I’m awfully glad I did.  An inaugural flight was a bucket list item for me. But I also learned something of critical importance to me (and maybe to you!)

FINISH your cell phone calls and data work BEFORE you board the flight.

I lost my cell signal immediately after boarding. After that, I was unable to maintain a viable cell signal while still on the ground in Chicago.  I chalked it up to a strange location on the airport grounds. Or perhaps it was a lot of inaugural flyers all trying to upload videos and finish calls.  Quite a few passengers around me were experiencing the same cell phone signal issues.

But then upon landing, I had the same issue on both my iPhone and iPad – and it persisted even after I tried all my usual tricks.  When I thought about it, I had the same issue last week at the 787 preview event (and then I chalked it up to being inside an airplane in a hangar).

The truth comes out

One of the testing technicians from Panasonic (the manufacturer of some of the 787’s cabin systems) was sitting behind me.  As we chatted before deplaning, I asked him whether the 787 cell phone issues were my imagination or a real issue.

He let out a bit of a laugh and said, “Yes, that’s a known problem.”  I trust him to know. Their team has been flying the 787s for all of their pre-passenger testing.  He said that he and his colleagues have experienced the problem firsthand. They determined that 787 cell phone interference is real.

It turns out that the 787, while fabricated from composite materials, uses a wire rebar for structural integrity.  Apparently, that rebar interferes with cellular signals on the plane.  He told me that AT&T customers had been known to have issues on the 787. He did add that some of his colleagues had better luck with T-Mobile phones.

While my signal came and went, I definitely had trouble holding a steady connection – and I never got LTE or 3G/4G connectivity during the duration of my time onboard on the ground in either ORD or DFW.

The important lesson I learned? 

Don’t board a 787 early and expect to have connectivity during boarding or delays.  I’ll finish my important calls before I jump on the plane and won’t rely on gate time to download a few final files.   787 cell phone interference will definitely change my pre-flight patterns!