diff --git a/astroquery/utils/commons.py b/astroquery/utils/commons.py
index cba49f2a..de1e3a02 100644
--- a/astroquery/utils/commons.py
+++ b/astroquery/utils/commons.py
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ import six
 import astropy.units as u
 from astropy import coordinates as coord
 from collections import OrderedDict
-from astropy.utils import minversion
+from astropy.utils import deprecated, minversion
 import astropy.utils.data as aud
 from astropy.io import fits, votable
 
@@ -60,6 +60,7 @@ ASTROPY_LT_4_1 = not minversion('astropy', '4.1')
 ASTROPY_LT_4_3 = not minversion('astropy', '4.3')
 
 
+@deprecated('0.4.4', alternative='astroquery.query.BaseQuery._request')
 def send_request(url, data, timeout, request_type='POST', headers={},
                  **kwargs):
     """

diff --git a/astroquery/utils/tests/test_utils.py b/astroquery/utils/tests/test_utils.py
index 5ac3ea41..3e4d78c8 100644
--- a/astroquery/utils/tests/test_utils.py
+++ b/astroquery/utils/tests/test_utils.py
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import astropy.io.votable as votable
 import astropy.units as u
 from astropy.table import Table
 import astropy.utils.data as aud
+from astropy.utils.exceptions import AstropyDeprecationWarning
 
 from ...utils import chunk_read, chunk_report, class_or_instance, commons
 from ...utils.process_asyncs import async_to_sync_docstr, async_to_sync
@@ -96,8 +97,9 @@ def test_send_request_post(monkeypatch):
                                    status_code=status_code)
     monkeypatch.setattr(requests, 'post', mock_post)
 
-    response = commons.send_request('https://github.com/astropy/astroquery',
-                                    data=dict(msg='ok'), timeout=30)
+    with pytest.warns(AstropyDeprecationWarning):
+        response = commons.send_request('https://github.com/astropy/astroquery',
+                                            data=dict(msg='ok'), timeout=30)
     assert response.url == 'https://github.com/astropy/astroquery'
     assert response.data == dict(msg='ok')
     assert 'astroquery' in response.headers['User-Agent']
@@ -112,8 +114,9 @@ def test_send_request_get(monkeypatch):
         req.raise_for_status = lambda: None
         return req
     monkeypatch.setattr(requests, 'get', mock_get)
-    response = commons.send_request('https://github.com/astropy/astroquery',
-                                    dict(a='b'), 60, request_type='GET')
+    with pytest.warns(AstropyDeprecationWarning):
+        response = commons.send_request('https://github.com/astropy/astroquery',
+                                        dict(a='b'), 60, request_type='GET')
     assert response.url == 'https://github.com/astropy/astroquery?a=b'
 
 
@@ -125,15 +128,18 @@ def test_quantity_timeout(monkeypatch):
         req.raise_for_status = lambda: None
         return req
     monkeypatch.setattr(requests, 'get', mock_get)
-    response = commons.send_request('https://github.com/astropy/astroquery',
-                                    dict(a='b'), 1 * u.min, request_type='GET')
+    with pytest.warns(AstropyDeprecationWarning):
+        response = commons.send_request('https://github.com/astropy/astroquery',
+                                        dict(a='b'), 1 * u.min,
+                                        request_type='GET')
     assert response.url == 'https://github.com/astropy/astroquery?a=b'
 
 
 def test_send_request_err():
     with pytest.raises(ValueError):
-        commons.send_request('https://github.com/astropy/astroquery',
-                             dict(a='b'), 60, request_type='PUT')
+        with pytest.warns(AstropyDeprecationWarning):
+            commons.send_request('https://github.com/astropy/astroquery',
+                                 dict(a='b'), 60, request_type='PUT')
 
 
 col_1 = [1, 2, 3]

Deprecate commons.send_request
Once the last usage of ``commons.send_request`` is removed, see #824, it should be deprecated in favour of ``BaseQuery._request``.
astroquery/utils/tests/test_utils.py::test_send_request_post astroquery/utils/tests/test_utils.py::test_send_request_get astroquery/utils/tests/test_utils.py::test_quantity_timeout astroquery/utils/tests/test_utils.py::test_send_request_err
astroquery/utils/tests/test_utils.py::test_class_or_instance astroquery/utils/tests/test_utils.py::test_parse_coordinates_1[coordinates0] astroquery/utils/tests/test_utils.py::test_parse_coordinates_3 astroquery/utils/tests/test_utils.py::test_TableDict astroquery/utils/tests/test_utils.py::test_TableDict_print_table_list astroquery/utils/tests/test_utils.py::test_suppress_vo_warnings astroquery/utils/tests/test_utils.py::test_process_async_docs astroquery/utils/tests/test_utils.py::test_async_to_sync astroquery/utils/tests/test_utils.py::test_return_chomper astroquery/utils/tests/test_utils.py::test_prepend_docstr[dummyfunc1-\n astroquery/utils/tests/test_utils.py::test_prepend_docstr[dummyfunc2-\n astroquery/utils/tests/test_utils.py::test_payload_return astroquery/utils/tests/test_utils.py::test_filecontainer_save astroquery/utils/tests/test_utils.py::test_filecontainer_get astroquery/utils/tests/test_utils.py::test_is_coordinate[5h0m0s astroquery/utils/tests/test_utils.py::test_is_coordinate[m1-False] astroquery/utils/tests/test_utils.py::test_radius_to_unit[radius0] astroquery/utils/tests/test_utils.py::test_radius_to_unit[0.01 astroquery/utils/tests/test_utils.py::test_radius_to_unit[radius2]