Originally Posted by
iadsyd
When United started rolling out Wifi the prices were reasonable even though, by comparison, airlines such as Qantas offer it free domestically: diseconomies of scale I guess so I won't begrudge them. However, over the last year reasonable has morphed into almost gouging status. On my last trip back to Australia in July I think it was $17.99 for the entire journey (14-15 hours) for which, given there are some blackout spots, I was okay paying. However, on my last two trips to Europe (IAD-MUC, IAD-LHR) in the last 3 weeks prices have been $22.99, $29.99, and $31.99. My workplace is footing the bill as I am able to work while in the air (except when ranting on flyer fora such as this) so it doesn't affect my pocket but I am starting to find it hard to justify. For that type of money I would expect: an uninterrupted service (10 minutes into this flight we lost connectivity which when doing remote shell work is a PITA) and streaming capabilities. I'm not sure the technology and the satellite coverage could support this anyway. The service being provided is no different than what I was getting when I went to LHR last year but only paid $12 or so. Evidently the market is able to support the current levels but it still feels like gouging.
Even at the high end for, say, an 8 hour flight, that’s $4/hour, which is less than GoGo typically charges on the flights I’ve been on. And the couple of times I’ve actually used it, it’s super slow. Probably also not much more than the hourly fees charged by buying WiFi on the ground (I.e, Boingo, etc.)
Originally Posted by
rankourabu
Good on United for figuring out that they can charge more and more.
Few people are buying this out of pocket anyway, but they've figured out that OPM is not price-sensitive, so they can keep jacking it up, as that is seems to be the target market.
Otherwise, there are plenty of airlines with cheaper (or free) wifi.
yup. My travel is all personal, and I just don’t buy it. Don’t really need it.
Originally Posted by
threeoh
It's still $8 for a 24-hour pass on WN!
and that is valid on all their TATL/TPAC flights, right?
Originally Posted by
zrs70
I like that my Tmobile plan comes with unlimited gogo WiFi on domestic flights (on my phone, not my other devises). It saves me a lot.
UA, however, is the one airline that doesn’t participate in he promo.
Yup. Was really annoyed when I figured this out. IIRC, though, it’s not unlimited - limited to 1 hour per flight. Texting is unlimited, though.