David Carabetta

I joined Flyertalk today because I'm moving from Michigan to New Hampshire in 2 weeks and will be doing the Delta round trip from Manchester NH to Lansing MI basically every other week for the foreseeable future. So I've been trying to figure out everything possible to make that experience more enjoyable. Medallion status: I'm lined up for for silver easily and will have the segments but not the MQD's for gold by the year end. Will likely upgrade to the delta Reserve caard. So I was looking into options for inflight wifi kind of residing myself to biting the bullet on the full price monthly plans(49 or 59 per month) when I came across a had full of very recent posts on reddit (August 2017) on USmobile and Ipass. Has anyone had any experience with either of these companies/services? USMobile has a $10/month wifi hotspot plan that as a perk allowed you to also connect to gogoinflight wifi or panasonic inflight wifi on any carrier. I signed up for the plan today but wont get to try it out until my next flight on Thursday. The deal almost seems to good to be be true. But maybe?



Longer explanation of how this appears to work..

Ipass info: https://www.ipass.com/inflight-internet/
Ipass is not a direct to consumer company. They are a middle man that allows other companies to provide universal access to a large collection of hotspots:
https://www.ipass.com/mobile-network/suppliers/
which is also supposed to work with Gogo Inflight and Panasonic Inflight wifi.
They provide an application you install that finds the hotspots they are associated with and does the authentication for the connection.

US Mobile: https://www.usmobile.com/wifi
USMobile appears to be some small bring-your-own-phone cell phone company.
They offer their $10 per month wifi plan which is purchased on a monthly basis and gives you credit for 30 days of access to the Ipass network. When I signed up for it, it doesnt appear to auto-renew, but I could be wrong. You pay for your month, then you download the Ipass application and use it to automatically connect with any of the supported wifi hotspots.



Subforum on reddit with some details: https://www.reddit.com/r/US_Mobile/

keneshhagard

Yup been using it on Delta. doesnt work on United. lol

HometoYYZ

Worked like a charm on all segments last week YYZ-DTW-NRT/HND-MSP-ATL-YYZ. Well, except for YYZ-DTW, and that's only because WiFi wasn't working on that plane.

Like you, I had the "too good to be true" thought... but also the "too good not to try" thought. I'm glad I did.

TheMadBrewer

I've used it on a couple of flights. I have a feeling that GoGo will be dropped if too many people are using it.

motytrah

Does it work on International GOGO?

cmx

It works great for me. I'll know about international in a week and will check back.

motytrah

https://www.ipass.com/inflight-internet/

Looks like the answer is yes.

apodo77

Didn't know what ipass was until I read this and the rant I heard behind me in the A17 SC makes much more sense.
Apparently his ipass was not working on whatever flight he came in from and was giving hell to the phone agent. Even said thanks for wasting my time and yours at the end before letting out a loud f bomb.

rylan

I wouldn't worry about gogo dropping them. Great deal for whoever can sign up for and use it, but the number of usmobile subscribers with ipass has got to be tiny.

Too bad they don't work with other phone companies.

David Carabetta

Another option that I found and have yet to test would be to sign up with the Copenhagen airport wifi service. Instead of just a 30 day plan like USMobile, they have 1, 2, 3 and 6 month plans. The 6 month plan works out to 10 euro per month, but has the benefit of including 3 devices instead of just 1.

https://cphtravelwifi.dk/

BSBG

MHT - DTW is just over an hour, and some of the flights are RJs last time I looked, so iPass is much more economical than gogo for 2-4 hours a month of use.

I signed up when they had the 40 percent off coupon last month, first trip Wednesday.

David Carabetta

From a convenience standpoint I think I will likely do MHT -> DTW -> LAN although I don't think there is Wifi availability on the DTW-LAN leg of the trip. This would put me at ~100 MQS for the year.

Depending on my scheduling and timing of things next year my other option would be to do a MHT -> LGA -> DTW -> LAN if i wanted to maximize the number of segments I get. This could push me into Diamond territory. My unknown would be how much other travel I do for business/vacation.

WhiskeyBravo

The other benefit of connecting in DTW is if weather or mechanical goes south allowing you to get into DTW but then the DTW-LAN is CXd you can very easily rent a car (on DL of course) and drive it to LAN instead of being stuck.

Grouchy

Delta 161 today did work for me (AMS-MSP)
Delta 873 today didn't (MSP-FAR) (ipass could connect but once connected couldn't login or go to a browser window with a CAPTCHA screenie)

CommentatusMaximus

I did this US Mobile iPass last week and it worked very well. But as it's only 30 days, 1 device, and requires the login app I'm considering switching to the CPH plan going forward. Not a lot of info out there though. I wonder if it gives direct access to your own iPass login vs relying on an app for login?