Stay Connected In-flight with Celcom Data Roaming and Emirates WiFi

It's been a while that I travel overseas. Many airlines have been upgrading the in flight offerings or ICE (information, communication, entertainment) to enhance the journey experience. One obvious and contrary to the past is the internet connectivity offering. 

In the past, we were reminded numerous times to turn our phone off or flight mode throughout the flight duration. I was even once friendly warned by a flight attendant not to use phone even just to resume my Spotify. 

Forward to today, I am now writing (and posting in a bit) this blog in flight, on the return route from UK to MY. 

The in flight 3G H+ connectivity is provided by AeroMobile. 

Is it free? Certainly not. 

Before I departed my trip 2 weeks ago, I signed up with Celcom 30-day data roaming addon package for RM98. That eased me from worrying about exorbitant data roaming charges when doing country hopping within Europe. I just had seamless connection right upon landing onto new country that I visited. I also didn't have to rent additional hotspot device that might cost more or less the same, what's more saved me from charging additional device and hassle to collect/return the device to specific shop. Foreign in-country SIM or traveller SIM is also another least preferred option for a trip that covered multiple countries. 

Apparently Celcom data roaming addon includes AeroMobile. You can check the list at Celcom's website. Soyacincau also covered that in this article. On AeroMobile's website, 4 MY telcos are listed as partners. Well, perhaps now only 3 telcos as Celcom and Digi merged to become CelcomDigi. 

One little glitch when I first landed on UK. Celcom's partner Vodafone UK did not allow the phone to connect data roaming with the auto-downloaded / default APN setting by Celcom. I had to connect to airport's free wifi to Google and manually configure another APN (Access Point Names). 

The celcom3g APN worked flawlessly, I had no issue to roam the countries I visited including AeroMobile. You can refer here for the setting or just Google it. Recommend to add this APN to your phone if don't have so you can switch the APN without needing internet if fail to connect with phone's default (auto downloaded) APN. 

Can we get free internet during flight? Yes for certain airlines like Emirates that offer free limited internet connectivity. 

My flight is by Emirates on an B777-300ER. Emirates offers free wifi internet connection to Skywards member for 1 device/session per member but it's limited to popular messaging app (see list below).

Additional device/session slim down the wallet by USD5. You can pay USD20 per device per flight for unlimited internet that includes online streaming. 

By the way, if you're observant to notice different times shown on the images, my work phone is connected to Emirates WiFi by OnAir is fixed at MY timezone GMT+8 whereas personal phone is connected to Celcom data roaming by AeroMobile following the timezone of present country which is UK. 

That's all to stay connected in flight. 

Good night from 36,000ft.