hookthem

Wow! I've never received an ETC from a FA. While unreliable wifi sucks, I'm glad to see that you've been getting compensation.

I've received vouchers for my help on flights... but they require filling out a form online afterward. And, 50% of the time the FA's forget to file the voucher with UA... and then the code appears "invalid" online. They never tell me that it is worth anything to begin with.

physioprof

There's not supposed to be internet overwater between Hawaii and mainland on domestic airplanes.

formergr

As usual FAs just shrug. I completely understand they can't fix or control it, but their reaction makes it even more clear that this is pretty much status quo now (if it wasn't already clear from my four straight flights without it working, of course).

All four flights on different domestic routes, different equipment, no over water, both on my mobile and laptop, and confirmed by other pax.

Impossible to ever actually confirm if refund received, and it's a giant pain to apply for.

lincolnjkc

Funny you should mention it... the only flights I ever get the automated "sorry your experience sucked, we're automatically refunding the wifi purchase" email for are ones that I don't have issues.

The flights I do have issues with as you said, it's not worth it.

formergr

I'm in a fun live chat with GoGo trying to get a refund (because of course United makes you do those wifi refund requests directly with!), and the agent first offered me credits to two future flights. I said I preferred an actual $ refund, he said ok, it would be in next couple of days and gave me a confirmation number. I asked if it would go on my credit card currently on file, or the original one charged, since a few days ago I'd had to cancel that original one due to theft? He said not a concern, the refund would "go on my bank statement".

I asked which bank statement, as GoGo has no access to my bank information, and I pay for each wifi purchase separately by credit card. He had to go find a supervisor, and eventually came back and said it can go to the new credit card.

So a full 15 minutes of my time wasted to get $14 back.

laxmillenial

Your bank knows how to handle this type of transaction. GoGo would refund it to your original card, your bank would transfer it hence why he stated "it would appear on your bank statement". They don't need your bank statement access, the banks handle this transition behind the scenes. GoGo just has to mark the transaction and refund it.

physioprof

Yeah, I stopped bothering trying to get refunds when I pay for WiFi and it works poorly or not at all. I just consider it part of the amortized cost of using WiFi on United.

pushmyredbutton

RockinRon

Yesterday UA 896 HKG-ORD - purser announced after push back that WiFi wouldn't work. I was really planning on getting caught up on work email after 2 weeks in mainland China.

nomad420

Just did a BOS-SFO run with tons of work to do. Wi-Fi failed immediately to add to that no in-flight entertainment. With delays (tarmac hold) it was over a 6 hour flight with only an old news paper to read. I sent and email to UA CS and all they said was they would refund me the Wi-Fi fee and sent me a form for reimbursement. I considered that a slap in the face, essentially ZERO compensation. Complain to UA CS perhaps you'll be luckier than I.

kmersh

Wife flew SFO-DFW and Wi-Fi died soon into the flight, so again she requests a refund and it is granted like always, except they have now issued seven refunds, the wife called UNITED and she was told that is impossible as the agent has worked for UNITED for 27 years and she has never scene nor heard of UNITED issuing seven refunds to a customer and refuses to even look into it.

Listen, we are happy to keep UNITED's money, but we were trying to do right thing. The wife called the credit card company and they told her that they cannot do anything as it is refund and not a charge, but if she is worried that UNITED might suck back the money automatically, she should just assume that only one refund was issued and pay the bill as such (ignoring the six other refunds).

Imstevek

I've had usable wifi on 1 of 10 segments in the last 2 weeks. Funny enough, that single time, it worked fabulously.

That said, what kind of compensation are you expecting?

nomad420

I figured they would throw me cash voucher for my inconvenience. I was far from the only one complaining, many had work to do as this typically is a big business run. 6+ hour flight and most business flyers have an expectation to work on it (afternoon/evening UA 2400). This can be crippling to some, luckily I didn't have deadlines to meet the next day. Add to this the in flight entertainment system went down. I have been thrown vouchers for what I consider less inconvenience than this fwiw.

LarryJ

An internal publication had some more detailed information on the 737 wifi problems and what is being done to correct them.

The recent reduction in wifi reliability was caused, in large part, by a software upgrade that was intended to address Android PDE streaming compatibility issues. A software fix is currently being deployed to all 737s with a scheduled completion by the end of August. A follow-on release is planned for a trial period starting at the beginning of August that will address the remaining software bug issues.

The article also mentioned that the 737 NGs have a 3-WAP system and the MAX has a 5-WAP system. Both systems are designed so that they can continue to provide full coverage with a single WAP failure. Doesn't really mean much to us from a practical standpoint but I thought it was interesting as I had wondered how many access points they were using.

Anyway, hopefully we will start seeing improvements very soon.

Xyzzy

Flew SFO-EWR today and discovered after takeoff that WiFi was totally dead. It turns out that the circuit breaker had been tripped on the previous flight. It would have been nice if they had let us know prior to pushback that it wasn't going to be operable. I think that's the most frustrating part of this -- when the crew knows it won't be working but says absolutely nthing.