We get it: long flights can be boring. Enter Alaska Beyond™ Entertainment – a new service that enables you to watch hit TV shows, movies, and exclusive content from Alaska on your own device at cruising altitude.

We’ve been upgrading our Boeing 737 fleet with direct-to-your-device entertainment, and today are thrilled to announce we’re just five planes away from completion.

But how does it work?

Alaska Beyond Entertainment is powered by inflight Internet and entertainment provider Gogo. All entertainment is hosted on onboard servers and beamed right to your device through high-throughput wireless access points throughout the cabin, for uninterrupted viewing – it even works over water.

Simply download the free Gogo Video Player before you travel (App Store, Google Play). Then, once you hit 10,000 feet or hear the double chimes, connect to the ‘gogoinflight’ network and power up your browser. Click ”Watch Now,” select a title and start watching.

“Traditional seatback players are outdated and clunky,” says Halle Hutchison, Alaska’s managing director of brand marketing. “We’re taking our inflight entertainment into the future by enabling our customers to watch hours of free and premium entertainment direct to their own devices.”

Beyond Entertainment quick stats

1. Top movie: on one day, Academy Award Best Picture winner Birdman was the most viewed video content.
2. Runners-up: Guardians of the Galaxy, Edge of Tomorrow, Neighbors, Draft Day
3. Flights with the most movie buffs: Boston to San Diego, and Washington, D.C. to Portland. These two flights each recently had more than 120 movie files viewed on average in one flight.

Tech specs

1. All content is hosted on onboard servers, each with nearly 2 terabytes of space. This equates to lots of content that will never interfere with your ability to access inflight Internet, and vice-versa.
2. To ensure uninterrupted wireless delivery and playback, our 802.11n wireless access points pump out nearly 50 simultaneous video streams each, and we’re working toward upgrading to an even faster delivery system.

Having trouble?

It’s a video player, not an app

Once you’ve downloaded Gogo Video Player, you’re good-to-go. In fact, you never need to open it again. Just make sure you have the video player downloaded, and then go ahead and forget about it. From here on out, you can access TV shows, movies and more directly through your Internet browser.

A different kind of ‘streaming’

Although your experience may be similar to popular streaming services, all Alaska Beyond Entertainment content is stored locally on servers onboard each airplane. Internet purchase is not required– Alaska Beyond Entertainment is a completely separate service from our onboard Internet offering.

Check your seatback pocket

Wondering whether your flight features Alaska Beyond Entertainment? We have decals installed on planes that offer the system. Onboard you can review the Flight Amenities card in your seatback pocket—if it features Inflight Entertainment, then you are ready to rock and roll. All of Alaska’s 737s will be equipped with Alaska Beyond Entertainment by May 2015.

Bring the right device

Check the list of supported devices before you travel.

Supported devices include:

• Android Tablets: Android and Chrome browsers on Android OS 3.2 and higher, excluding 4.2.2
• Mac OS X 10.6 and above: Safari 5 and above and Chrome 26 and above
• Windows 7 and 8 laptops: Internet Explorer 8 and above and Firefox 19 and above
• Surface users—use Internet Explorer in ‘desktop mode’
• Save your Kindle for catching up on your reading.

Your journey becomes part of the adventure as you watch free entertainment on your own device, enjoy Pacific Northwest-inspired food and beverages, relax in our custom, leather, power-equipped seats, and experience our award-winning service. It’s all part of Alaska Beyond™ — a new way to travel designed to go above and beyond your expectations.