The new pricing is beyond ridiculous — especially since WestJet’s wifi is such poor quality. It seems like they’re playing around with elasticity of demand, but doing a pricing game “live” with real customers has huge risks — pushing the price too high will not only kill off demand, but it will also hurt customer satisfaction and make future use far less likely (ie when they either reduce prices or improve quality).

At the old prices, I’d quite literally always buy (aircraft permitting) ... even though the lousy quality of their wifi often made it a bit of a struggle. I’d get a bit of work done, and surfing was my inflight entertainment.

At these new prices, though, no chance in heck. Zero. I’ll pass until they either make it a whole, whole, whole lot faster and more reliable — and/or bring the pricing in line with their competitors.

FWIW, I’ve had a few Delta flights in recent weeks. Their wifi is cheaper (even accounting for the exchange rate) and blazing fast. The quality comparison between DL and WS was night and day. (Plus, since Delta uses Gogo as their provider, my Visa card gave me a bunch of free passes. ‘Free’ mad e it even better.)

Sorry WestJet. Really dumb move on this one, with a product that’s really substandard.