How’s that free holiday in-flight Wi-Fi working out for ya?
As many frequent travelers know by now, Google is sponsoring free in-flight Wi-Fi on AirTran, Delta and Virgin America through January 2. That’s a great thing!
However, as often happens when something is free, you end up getting what you pay for.
Over the last several days I’ve heard from several readers experiencing frequent outages or poor connections when using in-flight Wi-Fi. This sounded unusual to me because, as a frequent user of the Gogo system, I’ve been very impressed with its ease of use, great connections and lack of any technical difficulties at all.
But it sounds like that’s not the case this month. Here’s a sampling of emails I’ve received:
>“Just flew Denver-Atlanta. Bumped off three times.” -R.S.
>“I had lots of outages on a flight to Las Vegas two weeks ago. I would have rather paid and had it work.” -J.B.
>“Last week I flew up to Charlotte from Atlanta and to Miami this week. Gogo fails constantly and is unreliable now. I would rather be given an option to pay for the connection, versus what I experience now.” –D.O.
The TICKET contacted a spokesperson for Aircell/Gogo to inquire about the outages. Here’s her response:
Anytime we give away Gogo access for free, we see the usage soar through the roof. This holiday promotion has been no different and almost every day is a new usage record for us. Pushing the boundaries certainly makes the system run a bit slower, and there are some situations in which we’re limiting the number of users who can get on the web on a given flight. Though a passenger might perceive that we’re having a technical issue, the reality is that we’re managing the network such that we permit the maximum number of passengers to use Gogo without degrading the experience too much. As you can imagine, that’s a tricky balance to strike – and while it has the potential to leave a few travelers unhappy, we think most are pretty pleased.
I’ve also heard from other airline insiders that the problem is especially acute when flying around the Atlanta area. This of course is due to the fact that both AirTran and Delta are the two carriers operating the most flights in the world with in-flight Wi-Fi—and the pipe is just not fat enough. Apparently, recent usage levels are close to 50 percent of passengers, up from the normal 5-10 percent.
So enjoy it while it’s free—if you can get on. Connections should improve when the freebie is over on January 3.
Have YOU experienced any recent connectivity issues lately when using Wi-Fi on AirTran, Delta or Virgin America? LET US KNOW what happened! Leave your comments below.
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Talking about Gifts from AirTran for Elite members – this year AirTran really floored me. I was out of the country on business for 2 weeks and got back on Jan5. At home – waiting was a gift from AirTran and a nice card and truly a very nice letter from AirTran Executive team – thanking us for our patronage and for being one of their top 150 frequent fliers. The gift was a SONY Digital Picture Frame. I was pleasantly surprised that they took the time to send a card, letter and a gift. Oh! and Delta too – they sent me an electronic card via email!
Interesting responses and not alone. To Gerard, your flight may be your down time but when I have a 5 hour flight to SNA and that time is nit critical for deadlines but critical for sanity, it is a must. For some the plane is our office and when we can get things done. For me, it is when I can finally purge out the inbix, delete ad many as possible , to allow me to have a better work life balance when I land. You prefer sleep on the plane, I prefer sleep when I land and downtime.
Flying as often as I do, the movies and tv are old news and my time would be an idle waste.
Having wifi that is reliable is important and if paying means I get a better connection I would gladly do such to get in, get things done and power down .
Flying back from Denver two weeks ago wanted to view a movie on netflix took 30 min. to download another 20 min. to buffer and lost it 5 min. in disappointed especially nice young lady behind me watching also. Guess to many users went to onboard music.
Lots of these sorts of connectivity troubles on a flt. JFK-MIA earlier this month. I complained to Delta CS via the web, but received no reply. I’m Diamond, so they usually listen to what I have to say, but not this time…
I tried to use Gogo on 3 consecutive days recently. The service either would not connect, or was very slow. When I complained to Gogo about it, they said because of the increased demand during the free promotion, they’ve not only had to cap the number of people who can simultaneously access it, they’re also limiting the amount of time you can be connected. So if you happen to get a connection, get the important stuff out of the way first since you may be cut off without warning. Gogo did provide an access code for a free session after this promotion ends.
On a recent DL nonstop flight from Tampa to LAX, I tried to connect my Samsung Vibrant (Galaxy S) smart phone to Gogo. I could not get the internet browser to connect and was not able to receive incoming e-mail messages, but curiously, I was able to send outgoing e-mails. The number of smart phones equipped with Wi-Fi is growing rapidly. Many people will want to use these “small computers” to browse the web and catch up on their e-mail. I hope that Gogo recognizes that there is a market for this service and finds a way to make their product compatible.
I have been flying Delta very frequently since the free wifi program went into effect. Since I often use VPN for my work email, I immediately know every time the system drops. Sign-on to Gogo has been very slow taking up to 5 minutes and, since there are frequent drops (probably 3 or 4 per hour) you are repeatedly signing on. Speed has always been a slight Gogo problem (don’t try watching a YouTube video–too painful–Gogo’s algorithm puts streaming video low on the totem pole to assure the best service for the most users)but it has been much worse over the past month. If you are using Facebook or Twitter, the speed is fine. If you want to do much else, Gogo has been a free No-go! I can’t wait until it goes back to a paid service in January and recreational users yield to business use. Unfortunately, if Gogo is successful in recruiting more partner airlines with more users, the future does not appear bright for inflight internet.
I guess I am the only one not exactly complaining here. The fact that I get wi-fi for free on a trip that would otherwise have been a tedious few hours is a bonus. Are we all so desperate to be in touch even 6 miles high in the air with the net that we “MUST” have access at the same level as we do sitting next to a PC with direct access?
I am asking how critical is my need to be constantly connected? Would my world fall apart by the line dropping? I have been CEO with a number of international companies and to be honest there is almost a sense of relief being able to say “Sorry I was in-flight and connection was bad”
If airlines supply it free then expect a run on the limited bandwidth. It is a marketing tool not a mission critical element of their business. The same applies to you. You are travelling to an important meeting. If you require mission critical Wi-Fi access while in the air then you are in trouble.
I prefer to catch a few hours sleep to be honest.
Several experiences, and dreadfully slow every time. I’d rather pay for good quality service than receive crappy or unavailable free service.
Briefly – also bad experience coming back from San Juan to Atlanta.
I used the free wi-fi 2 times. From SFO to Atlanta no problems…but then my laptop battery died before we were in the ATL vacinity. On way back from ATL had to try to connect a number of times, and it just wasn’t going through at first. Finally it did and I didn’t have any more problems.
But something interesting happened after the flight. Next day I got an email from Delta apologizing for the hour delay in take-off and asked me to fill out a survey on how we passengers were notified. Have not had that happen before.