why UA's use of 4 different inflight wifi providers? Is harmonization planned?
Jul 15, 2018, 4:38 pm
#1
Original Poster
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why UA's use of 4 different inflight wifi providers? Is harmonization planned?
Do others find UA's 4 different inflight wifi providers confusing? It counteracts the usefulness of buying subscription packages if you can't use them across the fleet. Is this going in the direction of eventual simplification, or is it getting worse? Why does this happen?
https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly...ight/wifi.html
I would love to know.
https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly...ight/wifi.html
I would love to know.
Jul 15, 2018, 5:00 pm
#2
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The different systems is most a historical issue and what systems were available for a a particular aircraft at a particular time. And likely getting lower price system for the domestic market versus using the WW vendor like Panasonic. Believe the DirecTV equipped aircraft were limited to Thales and not available on non-DirecTV aircraft.
That should not (but I don't have the personal experience to valid UA's statement) be an issue {when the wifi works 
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Is my United Wi-Fi subscription purchase valid on all flights?
The United Wi-Fi subscription is valid, within your subscribed region, on United- and United Express®-operated flights equipped with Wi-Fi.
The United Wi-Fi subscription is valid, within your subscribed region, on United- and United Express®-operated flights equipped with Wi-Fi.
Last edited by WineCountryUA; Jul 15, 2018 at 5:06 pm Reason: more
Jul 15, 2018, 6:02 pm
#3
FlyerTalk Evangelist
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Limited (Gogo for PMUA P.S.) and poor (Thales for PMCO 737) choices in the past, lack of good satellite antenna options for smaller planes (Gogo for PMUA ExPlus), and the need for global coverage on the widebodies (Panny Ku).
It's a continued disappointment that the legacy Thales (using ViaSat-1) installs can't use the marginally improved coverage of Viasat (using ViaSat-2), and that they're still installing such a limited footprint product on the MAXs which do will be doing Hawaii/LATAM/GOM/Caribbean flying for the next decade+.
UA does their own billing portal to somewhat smooth over the billing differences, including subscriptions. But when, not if, you need a refund, it becomes a finger pointing game that sucks for the customer.
I don't see Gogo, Panny, or Viasat going away any time soon. Maybe they can do away with the Viasat vs Thales differences on the legacy 737 fleet without a major hardware change in the future.
It's a continued disappointment that the legacy Thales (using ViaSat-1) installs can't use the marginally improved coverage of Viasat (using ViaSat-2), and that they're still installing such a limited footprint product on the MAXs which do will be doing Hawaii/LATAM/GOM/Caribbean flying for the next decade+.
UA does their own billing portal to somewhat smooth over the billing differences, including subscriptions. But when, not if, you need a refund, it becomes a finger pointing game that sucks for the customer.
I don't see Gogo, Panny, or Viasat going away any time soon. Maybe they can do away with the Viasat vs Thales differences on the legacy 737 fleet without a major hardware change in the future.
Jul 15, 2018, 7:01 pm
#4
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Thanks for the information!
Jul 15, 2018, 7:12 pm
#5
Join Date: Dec 2014
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Just another in a (very long) list list of reasons I wear Aloha shirts and drink like it’s 5 O’clock and let work happen on the ground.
Last edited by Dublin_rfk; Jul 19, 2018 at 5:13 am Reason: Correction
Jul 18, 2018, 8:35 am
#6
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On a related note, has there been a pricing change in the last month? I flew IAH-GRU on 13 June (non-Polaris 763) and the total cost for full-flight (11hrs) access was $13.99. Yesterday, I flew AUS-SFO on a 738 and for full-flight it was $18.99!! In the past, I believe the total cost for this sub-4hr flight was around $11.99; not sure if I missed an announcement but $18.99 for a relatively short flight is pretty dang pricey IMO.
w? Wifi must be working!
Jul 18, 2018, 9:48 am
#8
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On a related note, has there been a pricing change in the last month? I flew IAH-GRU on 13 June (non-Polaris 763) and the total cost for full-flight (11hrs) access was $13.99. Yesterday, I flew AUS-SFO on a 738 and for full-flight it was $18.99!! In the past, I believe the total cost for this sub-4hr flight was around $11.99; not sure if I missed an announcement but $18.99 for a relatively short flight is pretty dang pricey IMO.
Jul 18, 2018, 10:53 am
#9
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On a related note, has there been a pricing change in the last month? I flew IAH-GRU on 13 June (non-Polaris 763) and the total cost for full-flight (11hrs) access was $13.99. Yesterday, I flew AUS-SFO on a 738 and for full-flight it was $18.99!! In the past, I believe the total cost for this sub-4hr flight was around $11.99; not sure if I missed an announcement but $18.99 for a relatively short flight is pretty dang pricey IMO.
Also you're comparing an overnight redeye vs a nerd-bird route where I'd expect uptake to be high.
Jul 18, 2018, 11:15 am
#10
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Interesting...I'm on AUS-SFO pretty frequently and the prices have definitely been consistent. First time I've seen anything over $15.
Jul 18, 2018, 7:24 pm
#11
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GoGo, as I understand it, also constantly changes prices based on multiple factor including route/length, day, time of day, etc. meaning premium pricing for peak times while the same route at non-peak times will be less. My favorite is on UAX on short routes where, for example, there might be 50 minutes of availability, where buying two 30 minute sessions to cover the flight is cheaper than buying tit for the full flight.