eng3

The price is irrelevant to me.
All of my experiences with inflight WIFI have been the following:
1. Buy WIFI
2. Wifi doesnt work, stops working mid-way through the flight, etc
3. Request refund or complain to CS
4. Get refund OR voucher that far exceeds refund cost

Now I've only tried the WIFI a total of 5 times maybe.

bocastephen

I know my old employer, a large tech firm, refused to reimburse inflight wifi expenses, and I can't imagine they were alone in this practice - so who is buying inflight wifi, especially at these prices?

dkc715

People who fly a bunch. I'll do 100 segments this year. Purchased the annual global wifi package (I think it was around $700). At $7/flight, I don't bother filing a claim each time it doesn't work. Plus I don't have to guess at how much UA will try to extract from me for a la carte pricing. (I think EWR transcon gogo pricing is now up to $40!).

nomad420

My wife travels globally for a "large tech firm" in the valley and inflight wifi is not only reimbursed but almost required. She has to be in near constant contact with various office around the globe and has to have it. Not saying it doesn't go out or fail or have horrible band width, it does all the time. I frankly gave up on it as well and won't pay those rates. Also for what I do there isn't enough bandwidth in the air. I enjoy getting a cocktail, reading, watching a little TV and passing out. It is the one place my cell phone won't ring! :-)

findark

My employer is somewhat similar, although I think we're a little more realistic about the fact that in-flight wifi lets you sync email and IM a couple times during the flight and if you count on it for more than that you'll be disappointed.

AlanInDC

Similar story to mine, except I haven't had the good fortune of a voucher--only a refund. However, they seem to be getting better. My last wifi refund request was processed and approved in fewer than 24 hours. I guess they are getting lots of practice.

CO DCA

I think the bigger risk is a PR risk. This stuff, as we can see here, is easy to figure out. A single national newspaper article can do some serious damage. I can see a USA Today article: "United's wifi prices change based on who you are." Regardless of whether the "who you are" is "what your status is," an article would continue to undermine United's "flyer friendly" brand promise. It's hard to imagine that someone didn't consider this before authorizing this process.

BThumme

Nah, it's an easy PR rebuttal

"We were trying out a new model to give customer more choices...working to optimize the price customers were willing to pay...allows us to offer lower airfare to everyone who doesn't need wifi...we will continue to monitor this and make changes as needed...part of the reason why people should choose us"

physioprof

Yup. SFO-EWR yesterday on Gogo was $40.99. At least it worked well the entire flight.

ft1984

Reality is my hourly rate when billing far exceeds this cost. This is one of the reasons that I can get away so much is because of having the wifi
​​option always me to bill and monitor clients, I'm in tech. But I don't appreciate being put over a barrel for it. If I saw the same price for everyone fine. But literally loyalty got you shafted in this instance. I try to do a flight a month so the subscription does not make sense for me.


​​​

My last response based on my last complaint 2 flights ago.

"I was concerned to hear of the difficulties you endured in regards to the availability of inflight WIFI on
​​.
​​o The experience you described is certainly not reflective of our commitment to providing our customers the highest level of service.

The comfort of our passengers is a primary focus for United Airlines. We fully appreciate that access to inflight amenities is fundamental to the complete enjoyment of your travel experience. Please know it is never our intent to inconvenience our passengers in any way. Allow me to apologize for the disappointment and inconvenience this matter presented.

I realize my apology cannot erase what happened, but I hope it helps to know we take your concerns very seriously. Please be assured your comments will be forwarded to appropriate senior management within our Inflight Service Division for internal review and necessary corrective action.

I do understand the value of your decision to fly with us. Please be assured we will always do our best to uphold the level of service you have come to expect. As a gesture of goodwill I have made a request for your MileagePlus account to be credited with bonus miles. I hope the bonus miles are accepted in the spirit intended; as tangible means of United Airlines acknowledging your disappointment in regards to this matter.

Additionally, please note that we recently operated a test flight from Houston to trouble shoot and resolve WIFI irregularities.

On behalf of United Airlines I want to thank you for your continued loyalty as a Premier Platinum member, we appreciate your business and look forward to welcoming you aboard again soon."

They gave me 10,000 miles.

WingnutSYD

So, I've experienced this a few times and can confirm that pricing changes based on segment but does not seem to vary based on login state. The false positive that sometimes makes it seem like it is based on login state is that the system occasionally changes what segment it thinks it's flying when you log in or out. Check out the screenshots from skyccord above - unless I've misunderstood the situation, the first image (logged out) shows SFO-EWR, whereas the second (logged in) shows EWR-SFO, which was the actual segment being flown.

ft1984

I didn't even notice that.. It did it on my laptop too. In actually flying back home right now. NRT-EWR cost $20.99

ryman554

Something seems wrong when NRT-EWR is $20 and SFO-EWR is $40.

pushmyredbutton

I don't see anything wrong with pricing Wifi based on demand, similar to how airfares are priced by demand and not distance flown.

I am concerned with the separate pricing for different pax on the same flight, based on whether they are logged in or not. Seems like the better solution would be to: 1) get the wifi working consistantly 2) price it according to speed

Xyzzy

$40.99 for one flight or $49 for an entire month of domestic flights. I know which I wuld choose...