I'm a 1K who travels domestically almost every week for business. I fly UA because I live in Chicago and often go to SFO or New York and there are lots of flights. But UA's delay in getting WiFi has been so egregious (with many promises not kept) that I'm thinking of asking Delta if they'll match my status. Or maybe even Virgin (flew it the other day and it was great, but they don't go from Chicago to NY yet). I really need to be in touch while in the air, and the gap between UA and other carriers in terms of WiFi is huge and growing, and I have no reason to believe UA's statements that it will have WiFi soon. It just doesn't seem like a priority for UA. Are others considering doing the same thing? Any insights?
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The first non p.s. bird got WiFi recently and now three A319s have WiFi... I would wait a little longer to see what the WiFi installation pace will be like once they really get things going before making up my mind.
I can imagine that soon enough they will be installing tens of planes per month.
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From ORD I'd have thought your AA options would also have been pretty good, and I've been on several of their flights that have Wi-Fi. You might still be able to get their challenge/match.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by demkr
Yeah. It's getting ridiculous. How long could it take? Ridiculous. Everyone else has had wifi on atleast some of their fleet for some time now.
Very seriously considering leaving California come next year, and if SFO is no longer my home airport, will not be flying UA either.
Well, UA still hasn't bothered to install seatback TVs on its whole longhaul fleet and it's been... what, fifteen years since that became standard? Twenty years?
If WiFi s that important to you, you should fly a plane that has it.
Be aware that quite often on board wifi is slower than dial up. Try a flight or two to see if it is worth it.
True that speed can vary but I have been lucky I guess and never had anything in the dial up speed category. All my wifi experience is on US and AA though.
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if you need to be online at all times, maybe you shouldnt be flying?
Seriously, I dont care how important anyone thinks they are, a few hours is not going to kill you. Particularly in the example given from ORD to New York.
I enjoy being unconnected while flying, but it seems odd that the pmCO fleet has this great DirecTV system in every seat, power in rows 21 forward, but is seriously lacking in WiFi rollout.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CALMSP
if you need to be online at all times, maybe you shouldnt be flying?
Seriously, I dont care how important anyone thinks they are, a few hours is not going to kill you. Particularly in the example given from ORD to New York.
No offense, but you don't know my business. In my case, I'm an IT person working for a small concern who needs to travel but also needs to be in touch at all times (server down, power lost, etc. is a critical event that needs to be resolved ASAP)
Last edited by iluv2fly; Nov 12, 12 at 7:24 pm..
Reason: merge
if you need to be online at all times, maybe you shouldnt be flying?
Seriously, I dont care how important anyone thinks they are, a few hours is not going to kill you. Particularly in the example given from ORD to New York.
I would agree with this if there were no options out there with wifi. Essentially if the OP was complaining about something that didn't exist on any airline then I would agree with your thought, but when wifi is on a significant number of flights on other airlines this just sounds like resisting change. If the company is paying for the flight and is heavily internet based then wifi could increase their productivity when their employees have to travel.
Now talking on cell phones impedes on other peoples comfort so that would have me up in arms if that is ever allowed.
Agree with OP 100%. Flew BOS-LAX on a 737-800 election eve--a 6.5 hour flight--with no Direct TV, no wifi (as per usual) and no channel 9. Of all the nights I wanted to communicate with the outside world, this was it. UA needs to step it up in the wifi department--I am a 20 year 1K and ready to move my business to Delta. If is very frustrating when the rest of the world is working and communicating and I am standing still.
