Large Transport; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 173; Flight Crew Total 21000; Flight Crew Type 3101
Communication Breakdown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
General None Reported / Taken
Company Policy; Human Factors
Evidently; the ACARS code TG is no longer supported; despite its presence in the FOM QRH. We tried to use the TG code going into Denver on a day when wind shear or microbursts were possible; and got no response. We queried Dispatch; who relayed from the Chief Pilot that TG was not supported; and to try WSI [Pilotbrief].WSI does not show wind shear or microburst activity. The TG returned a real time bird's eye view of actual weather; gust front and microburst activity at the airport. It was vital to pilot awareness; and the information it relayed is not available in WSI. Furthermore; WSI relies on Wi-Fi; and on [this airplane]; the Wi-Fi is unreliable. Our Wi-Fi was in fact inoperative.I hope [our company] will reconsider the decision to remove a valuable tool for pilots' awareness of real-time weather events. This decision did nothing to enhance safety; and in fact degraded it.
Air carrier Captain reported their air carrier has apparently terminated a procedure that allowed flight crews to access real time weather information in favor of a Wi-Fi dependent system that doesn't work as well.