While flying to Dallas in late December I finally had a chance to watch free DISH TV during our flight on Southwest. To take advantage of the free entertainment onboard you need to use your own device since there are no seatback screens onboard.
I tried out DISH using my, I mean Lucas’ iPad Mini. At first I found it a pain to connect to the service but once I figured it out, it worked pretty well. I felt that there weren’t tons of live TV options to choose from but it was definitely better than nothing and it helped to kill some time. If you can’t find something airing live, you could also search through the on-demand options.
There are around 20 live TV Channels and up to 75 on-demand shows available during flights. (You can also purchase movies for $5 per movie, per device.)
According to the blog Nuts About Southwest, Southwest Airlines and DISH Network are excited to announce our partnership and the “TV Flies Free” promotion will continue through 2014.
This is definitely good news. With Kim having the Southwest Companion Pass and a decent amount of Rapid Rewards points to use, we’ll most likely be flying with the airline a few times in 2014. It’s nice to know that there will be a free entertainment option onboard.
Along with the announcement of free DISH TV for 2014, Dish is also offering 12,500 Southwest Rapid Rewards points for signing up for select, new DISH plans. The offer also includes your choice of an iPad Mini or first year DISH programming discounts.
Find out more about the “TV Flies Free” promotion and the DISH TV sign up offers HERE.
Not much kid friendly there unfortunately. I actually tweeted to @SouthwestAir about it and they said that some of their TV shows (that are also free) are kid friendly but I could never get a full listing of what shows they have. If anyone is able to find out, I’d love to know – we’re taking a family trip on Southwest this summer and this could be huge
I am impressed that @SouthwestAir even responded to you! We don’t have any flights with Southwest currently booked but when we do I will definitely look into the kids programming.
During our flight home, Lucas slept pretty much the whole way so it wasn’t really important to look for. We also have a bunch of shows for him on the iPad Mini just in case!