UPDATE: I flew Lufthansa on January 6th, 2014 and was able to login with my iPad mini using iOS 7. I did have a few glitches but it was possible to check email while flying from Franfurt to Denver. — Jen Pollack Bianco
This is the message I got repeatedly on both my iPad and iPhone 5s running iOS 7 on my recent Lufthansa flight
Like many business travelers, whether or not a carrier has wifi access definitely enters the equation when I’m choosing a long-haul flight (especially during the week). This was one of the reasons I chose to fly Lufthansa last week to Europe. I kept getting the error message above when I tried to log into FlyNet with my iPhone and iPad using iOS 7. This was confusing to me as my husband had no issue logging into FlyNet using his iPad still running iOS 6.
The purser, Angelika, then explained to me that the problem exists only with Apple devices running iOS 7. I was surprised I hadn’t heard a word about this considering at least 30% of the passengers probably have a device with iOS7. She didn’t seem to know when the problem would be fixed.
Left: Lufthansa’s First Class seat converted to a bed Right: They have pretty darn good chocolate cake on Lufthansa
UPDATE: on November 11 Lufthansa sent me the following update via twitter:
Here’s the update regarding iOS7: There are general difficulties to connect to any Telecom (our provider) hotspots with iOS7. The crew on board can now offer a workaround so you will be able to use FlyNet on board but the actual problem has to be fixed by Apple. Unfortunately we are still waiting for that to happen.
I’m glad to hear that Lufthansa has a workaround for the situation, and the whole experience shows that unlike so many other major airlines, they how to manage customer service via social media. I’ll update this post again if/when I get another update about Apple fixing the problem.