Since they first started offering in-flight internet service gogo has been toying with various pricing schemes to try to attract more customers. After starting with just a single flight option they’ve increased to multi-flight deals, day passes and two different monthly passes, one for a single carrier and one of all carriers where the service is available. Now they’ve added another option: a full year of service on Delta for $400.
Yes, this price is a discount from the cost of buying the service on a month-to-month basis. But only $20, or less than 5% savings. Take a month off – like maybe a vacation or something where you leave the country – and you’re actually paying more for the internet under the yearly plan. Ouch.
I get the idea of bundling up products and offering bulk discounts. I think that, when done right, they are a great way to increase sales for a product. But I also see very little value in paying such a high rate in advance, especially when the chances to realize the value of the discount are potentially limited. Too much risk and not enough potential savings.
Then again, my travel patterns are sporadic enough that committing to something on the same carrier for an entire year is never a good idea. Even my status earning comes from many partner flights. I suppose if you really are stuck on the same carrier every trip of every month (and that carrier happens to be Delta) it might not be so horrible. But still some real risk there.
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I know you are an in-flight internet/wifi hater so I usually don’t agree with your comments on this subject…but, this time you are correct. The discount should be bigger. It should be one month free (8.25% at a minimum).
I’m only a hater when the product is over-priced relative to the quality of service I receive. And, sadly, that’s been my experience far too often with gogo. If their product was any good and priced reasonably I’d quit the kvetching. In the mean time, anything less than 12 months for the price of 10 is a craptacular deal and I’m quite happy saying so. 😉
What a horrible deal, whom ever thought of this pricing plan needs to be fired and get into comedy because this kind of pricing is a joke. It’s label on their website as “Our best value” :
http://www.delta.com/traveling_checkin/inflight_services/products/wi-fi.jsp?