exBAres

I am currently interviewing with Gogo Air, but haven't had the chance to actually use their product yet. The concept is great, and I believe they are well positioned to win market share in a growing market.

However, given that I haven't had a chance to actually try their product yet, has anyone got any feedback (good or bad) that they would like to share with me?

Many thanks in advance....

robertw477

The service works but is mostly good for light web surfing and email. All video is blocked. Performance can be choppy at times. For what you get the pricing is high. Also over the past 1-3 years I noticed the pricing going up. Another issue is if a customer pays for a monthly service that applies to one airline IE Delta, or American for example. That is a poor business model. Delta has very wide deployment of WIFI, far more than American. Imagine you pay for Delta service and maybe you take a flight on American. You then have to pay ala carte for that.

mia

For $10 per month additional you can buy a GoGo Unlimited Pass which is not restricted to a single carrier. (Unlimited access on any partner airline, on any Gogo equipped flight operating between destinations within the United States, Canada and Mexico, where network coverage is available.)

http://www.gogoair.com/gogo/listAllProducts.do

Gogo

As user mia pointed out, we offer two subscription products - one is airline specific (Airline Unlimited), the other is for all airlines (Gogo Unlimited).

Remember, if you ever have questions, or issues with a flight session, come chat with us at gogo.to/chat, or tweet at us @Gogo. We're available 24/7 and our team is dedicated to help rectify any issues you have.

Thanks for the feedback!

HDQDD

Personally, I wouldn't recommend using any service that intentionally issues fake SSL certs and participates in MITM interception of data. There are ways to get around this, but the average user wouldn't know that. On the Gogo side, there are better ways to prevent people from streaming video (assuming that was their intention and not something more nefarious).

http://www.neowin.net/news/gogo-infl...l-certificates

exBAres

thanks to you all for your feedback - really helpful and I'll be sure to let you know how the recruitment process goes.

Zeeb

The connection is hit or miss. Some days the connection is fine for web browsing, emails, and other non data intensive tasks. Other days you wait five minutes for a single page to load before you give up in frustration.

robertw477

As another user pointed out there are some issues with performance that can vary. As GOGO first rolled out years ago people like me were excited. At this point the excitement is far less now that I have used the service. The value proposition is just not there. As the cost of the service have risen, there is no increased performance that I can see as I have used it from time to time over the years. Frankly the current business model just has limitations. Most people dont want to pay the fees. At one time there were nice discounts for phone only or tablet only use. Those costs have also risen. Especially the tablets. Its hard to find flyers that bullish on the product other than some bloggers who always seem to have a stack of free passes to use the service.

uxb

I am going to revive this thread with a warning that all FTers should heed. Apparently, Gogo is collecting sales tax on internet service for those states that mandate such a tax. I noticed this on a recent trip when I had made an $18,95 purchase only to see $20,51 charged to my card. Apparently, Texas is one of three states (the others are New Mexico and North Dakota) that tax the internet; however, TX regs. state that the first $25,- of an internet service purchase are exempt. This means that most Gogo purchases on flights originating from Texas would be excluded from the collection of sales tax. I'm not sure when Texas started collecting this tax, but this may actually prove to be a big problem for Gogo.

The relevant Texas bulletin is located here (Page 3): http://comptroller.texas.gov/taxinfo...s/tx96_259.pdf

The actual Texas regulation is located here: http://texreg.sos.state.tx.us/public...=1&ch=3&rl=366

P.S. Upon reading the regulation, I have questions as to whether Gogo should be collecting the tax at all. The collection of sales tax applies to monthly internet service. There doesn't seem to be any language that would allow for the taxation of single-use services. Other lawyers?

plinko83

This times a million.

Gogo

Some clarification on this:

Gogo is fully aware of Texas Administrative Code rule §3.366 that pertains to the sales tax treatment of internet access services, and the Texas sales tax exemption allowed for the first $25.00 of a monthly charge for internet access services. Gogo employs this rule when billing Texas customers for monthly passes.

However, for single-use passes or other Gogo passes that have duration of less than a month, Gogo has been following the guidance provided by the Texas Comptroller Letter Ruling No. 200308045L.

Link to this letter ruling is located here:

http://cpastar2.cpa.state.tx.us/high...t%3D200308045L

This letter ruling states “A single charge to use … Internet access … is subject to Texas sales tax as an Internet access service. The first $25.00 per month charged for Internet access is exempt from Texas sales tax. If you keep records of who purchases Internet access services, you can exempt the first $25.00 per month charged for Internet access. If you do not keep records of who purchases Internet access services, the entire charge is subject to Texas sales tax.”

Gogo does not currently have the ability to track single-use internet purchases per user for purposes of calculating the $25.00 monthly tax exemption. Therefore, each purchase is subject to Texas sales tax.

Also, please be advised that Gogo currently has a ruling request pending with the Texas Comptroller with respect to the Texas sales tax treatment of Gogo service.

uxb

I think you guys were better off not responding to this post. Anyone that uses Gogo already knows that your assertions are categorically false. Gogo is able to populate data on individual transactions by using a user's username, as demonstrated by their ability look at an individual's transaction history and to issue refunds to individual users. Just because Gogo wantonly coded their website to charge sales tax on all purchases doesn't excuse Gogo from the fact that their wilful collection of fees for services less than $25,- is in direct contravention to the code cited above.

woolfson

My take on it is that Gogo is probably charging. Who knows if Gogo remitting. Certainly on an interstate service (taxes), this would come under the jurisdiction of the FCC ; perhaps flights exclusively within Texas would be subject to this tax . But not the flights outside. Although I suspect that the rules are related to the telephone lines used to carry the service, rather than the service itself (which, unlike telephone service, IP packets are an intangible because it's immeasurabe). I would suspect that some savvy class action attorney will find this compelling.

nmenaker

for a publicly traded company, audited annually, I would find it pretty hard to believe that their auditors would allow them to collect and report to all customers a tax charge (so not listed on their IS as income) and not accurately report or remit.

gregmchicago

I would also question whether Texas tax rules apply at all unless the flight is actually in Texas airspace when the service is provided. On many routes north and west from DAL, or north and west from ELP, you are well out of Texas airspace by the time laptops can be pulled out and used.

(I remember years ago traveling by train through east Texas, when the bar car had to open and close service depending on whether we were traveling through a dry county. Once we got to Louisiana...... well, liquor stores there have frozen daiquiri machines at their drive-through windows.)