foodie2world

I flew American Airlines from Chicago to Hawaii recently, with a connection in Phoenix. I purchased an all-day Gogo flight pass for the Chicago to Phoenix flight, and expected to be able to use it for my entire trip. Once I got on the Phoenix to Hawaii flight on American, I was surprised to learn that I had to purchase yet another wifi through Panasonic wifi.

What the heck American Airlines? Why is not my all day pass from my earlier American Airlines wifi not valid on my 2nd leg? This is pretty crazy. 2 wifi expenses, for 1 carrier flight itinerary.

How is American Airlines so disorganized and customer unfriendly when it comes to wifi? Is there any way to get this addressed so travelers don't have to end up paying for more than 1 wifi provider for an American Airlines trip?

enviroian

an all day purchase doesn't count for a passenger connecting onto another aircraft. Unfortunately for you it just happened to be equipped with another wifi supplier (AA is migrating away from gogo). I wouldn't have ever purchased an all day pass if I didn't know the connecting flight had 1. wifi 2. gogo wifi.

foodie2world

I agree with you 100%, I would never had purchased an all day pass either had I known that AA would have 2 wifi providers.

But more to the point, AA should make it seamless for passengers. How can AA expect passengers know the different providers? AA provides the entire flight experience from point A to B to C. They should allow a passenger to purchase an all day wifi pass and use it on their entire AA experience, regardless of who the wifi provider is.

This is just unacceptable that they pass the buck (literally) to 3rd parties and not own up to the customer experience. AA is responsible for the entire flight experience and expense, they need to get this right so passengers pay AA once for everything related to the flight. I'm shocked that AA doesn't have this handled properly for passengers.

Finsup72

enviroian

I know that.

My point was AA doesn't account for a traveler connecting onto a non Gogo equipped aircraft.

3Cforme

You may think it but it just isn't going to happen. American is using both Gogo (and for a while, both Gogo ATG and 2Ku) and Viasat going forward.

Southwest is using two wifi vendors too, Global Eagle and Panasonic.

mvoight

AA doesn't handle the charges, as they are handled directly by the vendor. However, I think the page you hit when initially connecting, or at least when buying a pass on the flight should tell you the airline you are buying it for may have other providers for other flights.
That said, if you bought a day pass from GoGo and only used it on one flight, I would call them and ask for a partial credit and ask that they warn people in the future

enviroian

so will it just be UA and DL using gogo moving forward?

foodie2world

I am a companion pass holder on Southwest. I have never had to pay more than once for a Southwest flight wifi on any itinerary. I pay Southwest for an all day pass, and I don't need to worry about who Southwest is using behind the scenes.

It's just crazy to me that AA doesn't have the same model, and they are unable to charge the customer once for wifi on any given itinerary, and handle the back-ground processing themselves.

foodie2world

This is where AA needs to own up to the experience. It's like going on board, and then having to pay Coca Cola for a soda, Pizza Hut for a pizza, and Cheese Cake factory for dessert, all separately on the flight. Pretty shocking.

I guess I am spoiled by other airlines where the airline handles the front-end charge and I don't need to worry about separate details like this. American is the travel provider, they have all the details of which planes use what wifi. They should make it a non-issue for passengers. This is pretty basic customer experience type of process for most other companies and industries - provide a single face to the customer.

Being spoiled by Southwest made this a pretty shocking experience for me.

foodie2world

It's kind of surprising that this is normal for AA customers. I mean, why don't we also pay the ground crew in Chicago for our checked back, and then pay again in Phoenix for yet another checked bag? Or pay our flight crew for the flight to Phoenix, and pay the flight crew to Hawaii?

Based on the responses so far this seems acceptable to AA passengers. I'm kind of shocked that it is ok. I guess I learn something every day...something that should be a non-issue and a basic customer service issue, is so shockingly complex and un-customer friendly.

oopsz

I agree that it's ridiculous.

AA needs to own its on-board experience and figure out a consistent billing system. We don't pay Boeing for MCE on a 737 and Airbus for MCE on an A321 - it's AA's ship and AA's product.

Superjeff

It has nothing to do with American. GoGo is Air to Ground, and Hawaii is overwater - GoGo won't work. If you're on a widebody or a 757 PHX-Hawaii which has wifi, they have to use Satellite based service, which is Panasonic. That simple. And the same situation on United and Delta these days; until the entire industry converts to Satellite based, that's the way it is (BTW, that is in the works, but will take a couple of years).

ElCaminoReal

They've made the monthly GoGo subscription work on ViaSat planes. I'd imagine a similar endeavor is underway with Pannasonic. They should just rid of anything beyond a flight pass to avoid issues like this if they don't plan on making those passes interoperable.

SeeBuyFly

Generally an angry low-post-count poster is someone who just doesn't understand how things work. However, in this case the OP is right. Saying "you shouldn't buy an all-day pass without checking what is on your next flight" is unreasonable. Any AA customer would have a reasonable expectation that an all-day pass would work on the connecting AA flight.Unfortunately, AA IT is not up to the task of warning you automatically that your itinerary does not work with an all-day pass.