Unreliable WiFi connection DFR0654 and 0.2.1 board package

I had intermittent issues with WiFi getting stuck trying to connect. With this code

      WiFi.begin(ssid, password);

      while (1) {
       Serial.print(WiFi.status());
       if (WiFi.status() == WL_CONNECTED) {
         connected = 1;
         break;
       }
       if (WiFi.status() == WL_CONNECT_FAILED) {
         break;
       }
       delay(1000);
       Serial.print(".");
     }

It would get stuck with  WiFi.status() returning 1 WL_NO_SSID_AVAIL so loop would never exit. It went through a other values before it continuously returned 1.  After trying various code changes with no improvement I switched to the 0.2.0 board package and the problem went away.