Flying? Use In-Flight Wireless When iPhone Airplane Mode is Enabled

Are you a traveler and flying on an airplane with your iPhone? Then this tip is for you!

You can selectively enable WiFi access while your iPhone is in Airplane Mode, meaning you can use a flights wireless internet service without the cell phone itself being turned on.

This is really handy since many flights are starting to have inflight wireless access, but in much of the world cellular use on airplanes is banned. That’s where this tip comes in, you can turn off your iPhone cellular modem but enable wi-fi, thereby allowing you to use the airplane flight wi-fi service but without using the cellular capability of the iPhone. Sound good? If you’re a traveler, of course it does!

Here is how this nice little trick works:

Enable the feature within Settings app of iOS like so: Tap on Airplane mode to enable that as usual, then then tap onto Wi-Fi mode to enable that. Next, tap to join the wireless network.

You’ll be on a wi-fi network while AirPlane still maintains it’s ability to prevent the cellular service from activating.

You can also turn on AirPlane mode from Control Center first, and then from Control Center toggle the “Wi-Fi” button so that it’s enabled too. As long as that little plane icon is in your iPhone top bar you’ll know airplane mode is enabled.

Always check with a flight attendant before attempting this, just to be sure you are in compliance with your air carrier and their flight rules, every airline is different.

You can actually use this wi-fi with airplane trick on any iPhone or iPad that is cellular enabled, and if you want to you can turn on bluetooth with airplane mode enabled as well.

This combo works on just about every iPhone that has AirPlane mode, so even if you’re on an older iOS it should work just fine.

This cool tip idea comes from FinerThingsInIPhone, but if you have ever flown on a plane with in-flight wi-fi you know this is useful to nearly everyone out there. Enjoy.