Originally Posted by
SS255
I know that US is disappointed in the usage rate, which is why they have no current plans to install it in their other aircraft. (Currently all of their A321 fleet has it.)
There are 4 reasons why I believe the usage rate is low on US:
1) Price is too high, and there is no option to buy by the hour or the minute. It's a flat-rate pricing structure, which automatically shuts out part of your target audience who just wants to quickly check e-mail and/or briefly surf the internet.
2) No power ports on US, so on transcons you are paying for 5 hours worth of service, and only getting 2 if your battery dies.
3) Bandwidth is inadequate. Case in point: My brother tried it on PHL-LAX, and he could not stream from Netflix (and then his battery died
). He said he would never buy it again.
4) The level of difficulty in using a laptop in Y.
I guess it all rolls back up to the pricing. Why would you pay for a service which is unreliable, difficult to use, and for which you will not get your money's worth? (Unless someone else is paying for it, of course.
)
All great points.
Also, I don't think US really attracts business customers that would use the product. Most of the US travelers I see are there because their flight was $5 cheaper than the competition, and they're stuck flying "the Ugly Girl," as JS would say.
Additionally I've only personally been on flights to leisure destinations such as Florida on the A321, perhaps they'd have better numbers if the aircraft equipped with GoGo flew more business routes.