macdo

I recall that the in flight phone service went away before a price point acceptable to AirNZ and customers was reached.

watching with interest,

kiwicyclo

Just got notified my IAH - AKL flight is Wi-Fi enable and will be available after take off. NZ29 departing shortly

Trumpkin

I wonder if it'll be like the phones you could use on the A320s a few years ago that nobody ever seemed to use and the result was that they were removed after a while?

NZbutterfly

I think wifi is one of those features where Air NZ can't afford to be left behind. More and more airlines have it and more are rolling it out. Customers will come to expect it. Can't be last to the game!

codyc1515

You can pay with Airpoints dollars. I can imagine for some less frequent travellers this may be a welcome addition.

kiwifrequentflyer

Well I am about to board an air nz flight to Sydney from Christchurch. Would love WiFi even if it does cost $40 but don't think they have added it to our planes.

cavemanzk

Correct none of the current A320CEO’s have wifi fitted, when the A320/321NEO start arriving later this year they should come installed with it.

ajnz

LH/UA/AA charge passengers in J for WiFi. Not sure why NZ would be any different - if you're traveling for business, it's just another business expense.

$40 for a trans-Pacific flight, while high compared to competition (UA/AA), is well within what I would pay. Not realistic for a Tasman flight.

mmonster

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/...ectid=12054228

Apologies if been posted before, $40 a sector

sbiddle

There is another discussion on here about it. The NZ Herald is printing old news though - it's been $30 per flight for a couple of days now. Since there has been no official launch per se and no official pricing set I suspect Air NZ are simply testing the waters with different price points to see what uptake is at varying prices. Their comms team was a little vague when approached today about why pricing has dropped already.

For the NZ Herald to even suggst somebody who tested it said it was "dialup" speed is also complete and utter rubbish. You experience "dialup" speed on Emirates with their free L band solution that only supports around 384kbps total to the aircraft so 56kbps (dialup) speed is possible. Speeds on Air NZ during my testing, and that of other people I know who have used it has been no slower than around 2-3Mbps which is 50x faster than dialup.

RSkipage

My experience of the free trial was very good. There were no dropouts, I was able to download docs attached to emails and website access was smooth. When working on long haul flights $30 is actually very good value to me and I'll definitely use it. Kudos to Air NZ for taking the time to put in place a robust system, particularly for business travellers.

gratn

For me, the analogy is to hotels. 10-15 years ago you paid a lot for bad WIFI, if it was available at all. Now, the quality is much better and many places have it free. In 5 more years it will likely be free everywhere. I expect that will happen with NZ in time, inevitably starting in J, but it won’t be as quick as many passengers will like.

cavemanzk

The thing is NZ isn't cheap in J - they are one of the most expensive airlines out there for J for an overopriced hard product from the early 2000s.

Johnnynz

a colleague and I used it Auck-LAX last week, consensus was it was pricey but fine for a flight that long.

brenrox

Is it $40 per device, or could you and your colleague share it?