lincolnjkc

More curious if anyone else has seen this than anything else... For the 2nd time since last Monday (or 2nd time in 8 flight segments) I've gone to buy UWF and the portal has offered the price as $5.99 or X miles for the full flight (only option). I click through to buy, log into my MP account and the price jumps to $7.99 (still full flight is the only option).

It's mildly irritating but I still shell out the extra $2. This is on UA 632 (A320, ORD-IAD) this morning, can't remember exactly which segment the last time was but it was a 73-something so not like it was the same satellite tech [at least AFAIK]

laxmillenial

mozilla

Yes, has been reported more than once in the consolidated UA Wi-Fi thread.

docbert

Yes, happened to me a few weeks ago - https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/29792034-post347.html

Reported it and they gave a full refund (even though I only asked for the difference in price to be refunded), plus they forwarded it to their "technology department for internal review and any repairs necessary will be done"

I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that it's a bug and not actual "bait and switch", but it still needs to be fixed...

mduell

Personalized pricing after you login? Since you keep shelling out for it.

Kacee

So it's the passenger's fault

Aussienarelle

+1: please report it.

It is an illegal practice (I believe) and I am certain United would want to fix it, and the fact docbert was told it would be fixed and it has not been is quite concerning.

Kacee

It would likely qualify as a deceptive practice that is exclusively within DOT's jurisdiction.

It's no surprise they haven't fixed it. The errors that favor the airline never get fixed quickly, if they get fixed at all.

Ripper3785

What's that saying- Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence.

Yes I know not word for word.

justsawaufo

I noticed something interesting on my last 2 flights - if you are able to login to the unitedwifi and purchase a package during boarding, the price is significantly lower than if you purchase it 'in air'. I keep trying to prove that theory but the majority of the time I can't even load the unitedwifi page unless we are in cruising altitude...

lincolnjkc

I'll try to remember to take screenshots on my next flights (last flight of the day today was on a 145 so the wifi didn't work so well ) but I did forward the receipt to 1K Voice with a polite note and asking them to forward it to whomever can fix it [I also explicitly asked them not to refund it, because if they do I'll spend 20x that in billable time explaining/documenting the $2 refund/discrepancy on the corporate card]

I'm wondering if you're seeing a variation on the bug/glitch/whatever you want to call it that I encountered.

To some extent it depends on the aircraft type/particular WiFi technology, e.g. on GoGo aircraft you're SOL below 10k, period. On the Airbii I usually don't have any luck unitl >10k, though that seems to be more of a function of the FMS link not pushing flight data for the WiFi system to know what to offer/charge [symptom: internet access is shown as "available", walled garden sites work, but the flight data pane shows "unavailable", and get an error page trying to purchase], and can be available lower...or not at all. On the LTV (737/753 fleets, IIRC) platform, I have much greater success at getting things kicked off on the ground, but there's still a bit of a FMS dependency that can slow things down.

Aussienarelle

Discovered the trick to make WiFi work. Took two books with me and the WiFi worked from SAN-DEN (UA1982) with no interruptions. Was able to watch most of a movie. Flight landed early so still to watch the last few minutes.

WiFi not working? Scare it with a book or two!

aCavalierInCoach

Just to add to the log because it's started to get ridiculous -- BOS-ORD yesterday wifi inop for first 2 hours; FA restarted 3 times before it finally became log-in-able. Frequency of issues is mind boggling -- I would think someone would notice the massive holes in their wifi revenue patterns and do something about it.

AirJam389

Weird experience Tuesday morning IAD-LAX. Wifi appeared to be working fine and i was able to pay and sign in easily.

Then, 5-10 minutes into the flight, the connection would basically become unusable (gmail would tell me there was no connection). But oddly, I could switch to my phone and it would work there...for 5-10 minutes, before crapping out the same way. Basically I was able to toggle back and forth between the devices and have a usable connection on one of the most of the time, but it never just worked the way it should.

Definitely been very frustrated with domestic wifi for the last couple of months. But I've seen a few more good movies!

docbert

So I tested this out on my 2 flights in the past few days. Both times I couldn't get to the purchase page at the gate as Internet wasn't available, but once we started taxiing I could.

On both occasions, before takeoff the prices were significantly higher than after takeoff. But what's interesting is that the prices offered also made no sense for the flight. eg, 1h/2h/whole flight pricing for a 1h30m flight. After takeoff the prices change to 30m/1h/whole flight.

Both times, the aircraft had come in on a flight longer than mine. My guess is that before takeoff it's showing the prices for the previous flight. Around/after take-off, it flips over to the current flight. So it's not so much that it's cheaper before takeoff, just different.