SeattleWanderer

I have a T-Mobile plan that gives me 60 minutes of free Wi-Fi on AS (and other Gogo) flights. My partner has T-Mobile too and I assumed he had the same deal, but after 60 minutes he didn’t get kicked off Wifi… turns out there are some T-Mobile plans that give you unlimited Wifi! (Maybe this is common knowledge to most people in the forum.)

What I don’t understand then, is why would any frequent flyer bother paying the very high Gogo fees (whether for a monthly pass or flight pass) rather than just getting the T-Mobile plan that gives you in flight Wifi? Surely getting the phone plan would be cheaper, I would think (especially in terms of marginal cost). I suppose this wouldn’t work for people who live in areas with poor T-Mobile reception.

samosa

I have a legacy tmobile plan and it only gives the 60 minutes. I have not upgraded and do pay for the monthly pass for gogo only because the tmobile wifi only works on mobile (though there are some workarounds). The reliability of the monthly pass is what gets me--often the tmobile just doesn't authenticate.

GW McLintock

T-Mobile ONE plans provide free wi-fi for the entire flight I believe. However, T-Mobile is secondary in terms of coverage to other carriers like Verizon. My personal phone is Verizon but my work phone is T-Mobile (not a ONE plan). In the past I have used the phone number of a friend who has a ONE plan, but now they send a text message with a code to confirm.

In addition, this only works on mobile device wi-fi. I generally do work or other activities on a laptop, and you cannot use the T-Mobile benefit on a computer.

I have also had trouble getting T-Mobile to authenticate onboard, especially since they implemented the text message verification.

-J.

Mikey

Besides it's nicer just to go to sleep than to surf the web and get all riled up.

be_rettSEA

Not sure if they closed this loophole, but have had success in the past using the TMo gogo from a laptop using Chrome developer tools and switching the browser device view to an iPhone or other. Then just login as if you're on your phone, and once authenticated go back to using your browser as normal. Though people shouldn't use it on flights that I'm on and suck up all the bandwidth.

Eastbay1K

Oh - probably best place to post this. Last night, I returned from what was supposed to be my first AS trip of 2022.

My SFO/SAN/HNL morphed into a SFO/HNL UA nonstop. Fortunately, the SFO/SAN delay had already posted when I got up at 345 am and was on the horn with AS at 4 am regarding my impending misconnect. This was the first and only time AS ever put me on another airline in 36 years of flying AS. I suppose with the poopoodoodookaka show of the past short while, the agents have been empowered to do more.

By 430, I was getting my new flight info into the HI Safe Travels website. By 5, I was back in bed for an attempted (unsuccessful) three hours more sleep.

My HNL/SFO turned into a HNL/SFO on HA - the AS flight had 0'd out a few days prior to official cancellation, and I didn't want to run the risk of fares at the most last minute, so I booked the HA and refunded the AS when it officially canceled.

The HA flight was lovely. Its lie flat seats aren't the best (issues with seat adjustment and the joke of a footwell). Somehow the crew was able to do two rounds of beverages (served with plated mac nuts) prior to meal service, and then a one-tray-everything meal service, with frequent checks on our beverage levels throughout the flight. Tasty food, with an excellent dessert.

The UA flight was nice. Food was marginal, but service was lovely - and my beverage levels remained as I wanted throughout the flight.

And that is my first booked AS trip of 2022.

vanillabean

It looks like ALK's Q4 earnings did alright as announced after hours.

jrl767

anyone else notice that the Flight Tracker has both LAX and SEA pinned nowhere near the actual airports?

edgewood49

most likely a position anomaly at that moment in time,

jrl767

have to disagree; it was like that the entire flight (as well as the outbound a couple days earlier)

mtofell

I wonder if it's one of those things where they just pin it on a much broader map and when you zoom in it's not totally accurate? If so, definitely kind of sloppy but that's all I can think.

edgewood49

With the new proposed merger of Sprint and Frontier making the nations's 5th largest carrier there is word floating around wall street and about Alaska and Jet Blue. I for one have said this past year in the room and other boards that after seeing listening and talking to the new management team at Alaska I for one would not be surprised that there is a merger in the future, not today not tomorrow but in the next few years whether or not it's Jet Blue that remains to be seen. Of course there is American that one would also not surprise me given how much and fast they jumped in with AA and OW.

I would not dismiss these rumors lightly everyone, our "hometown airline" is no more. It all started with the loss of the annual Christmas Cookies !!!

BOB W

The logic is there. AA & JetBlue already have a tie-up. Adding AS would create a behemoth which I doubt the Feds would be happy about. Who really knows what will happen?

GW McLintock

Saturday night on my SEA-JFK, there was a family of 5 or 6 seated behind me that was trying to get to BTV on JetBlue. After JetBlue canceled one (possibly two?) of their flights, they were rebooked apparently onto AA operated by Alaska SEA-JFK redeye, and then the following morning JFK-BTV on JetBlue metal.

I would be very disappointed to have an AS+JB merger. But never say never...

-J.

edgewood49

As a long time AS FF I agree however when one looks around at the landscape, the management and their love affair with AA we will see something, what that will look like not sure.