bwhite

The service and pricing are all in the hands of aircell. Same sort of arrangement was used in the hotel industry for a while. Provider installs equipment and internet circuit, hotel gets a small portion of billed revenue. That model has been declining as more hotels give it away for free now.

I can see the day when more planes/carriers have it and one of them has a "this month internet is free on XYZ airline" promo.

Agree the service is too expensive right now. I think if it was $4 for the short flights there would be a lot more buyers. Right now I suspect only 1 or 2 business travelers who will expense the cost are using it on any given flight. I currently have 10 more legs on MD88 this month alone but don't plan to pay $10 on any of them. At the current rates I see the same fate as the GTE Airphones. At the time I worked for them and got it for $0.30 per minute (a bargain over regular rates) but still hardly used them.

Voice your opinion at the gogo website. The marketing gurus are looking at pricing options right now.

pbarnette

In a NYT article on in-flight WIFI, is this little nugget:

Here is the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/bu....html?_r=1&hpw

bwhite

They suggested monthly plans would be coming on the wifi delta blog on May 4 as well:

http://blog.delta.com/category/wi-fi/

AndyTLe

Good idea. But execution will be the key. My concern is the cost of the monthly plan and the number of planes that will have the Wifi. No brainer if all the planes had the service, but right now it is very hit or miss (mostly miss).

18sas

Sounds like a smart move. Many people have expressed that the cost wasn't worth it on short flights, so if you're taking a lot of short hops, then a monthly package would then make sense.

goaliemn

Now if there was a deal that would let you roam at Boingo access points.. you'd have the airport and the airplane covered.

MikeMpls

Properly priced that would be a great move.

My one & only experience w/ in-flight WiFi has been on an extremely turbulent WN flight. Despite the fact that WiFi was free on this particular flight & that I was in a exit row, I could not see paying up to $12 (or more) per flight for the experience. A reasonable flat rate will help compensate for the bumps (literally on some flights) & cramped, unworkable conditions that are often experienced.

bwhite

I started timing usable airtime (been on a lot of MD88 this month). ATL-RDU which is a common segment for me and MD88 rich has ~40 minutes above 10k feet. I wonder how many are going for it @ $10 for such segments.

SchmutzigMSP

It's generally easier to use computers when you have more space in FC after being upgraded. So, the next time you're on a WN flight and get upgr...oh, wait...

MisterNice

The NYT usually is smarter. The airlines have no idea on the final flight/day/monthly wifi price points or even if wifi will be accepted by the passengers.

Somehow I cant see 3-5 people on a row each with a 17" (I now diag) computer screen and each sitting in an 18" wide seat. Oy!

MisterNice

eponymous_coward

I tend to think cheapish netbooks (with somewhat smaller screens) and mobile phones are the wave of the future when it comes to WiFi use on planes- basically, you bring your own IFE unit and get the IFE off the Internet. I do OK with a 13 inch MacBook as my main rig, and netbooks are even smaller.

Admittedly, the space you'd get on B6 (34 inches) would work a lot better for full-sized laptops...

pbarnette

While I agree that netbooks and mobiles are the best devices for use on the plane, I'm not sure those carrying such devices are the target audience. If they are targeting corporate users, who would be the main users of a monthly subscription, they are much more likely to be using larger notebooks, I would think. Not sure what possibilities, though, this would open up for using a blackberry on the plane - don't use one, myself - can a blackberry access email over a wifi connection?

Personally, I would be willing to pay for longer flights (have a Vaio P and iPhone, which are well-suited to the task), but the pricing on shorter flights does seem pretty out of whack.

AndyTLe

Some BBs can, it depends on what the carrier asks RIM to put in the BBs. Verizon for one doesn't like having Wifi in their Blackberries as they want people to use their network (which doesn't help when flying). But carriers such as AT&T and T-Mobile have wifi.

tjisnumbaone

+1 ^

mooper

I suspect that most people to whom the monthly plan appeals have fairly regular routes where they know if they are covered yet or not (all MDs are now, I believe). For routes that are hit-or-miss or not covered, it won't be that way for too long, so the percentage of customers interested in a subscription will climb along with the percent of fleet covered.

Such a plan would likely cost $50+/month, so why not just get a Verizon 3G card and get essentially universal coverage for $60/month?