Grrrr: American Is Replacing Gogo Inflight Wifi With ViaSat

This is happening a year from now. A year plus. They could consolidate everything on one provider (VIASAT) by then. Until then, who knows. No need to stress and freak out about it.
I was reading one of your posts from 2009. It was interesting. There, you reviewed a flight, and you encountered in flight wifi for the first time. You were very skeptical of it, saying you preferred the time aloft to disconnect. My how things have changed.

Cost is the kryptonite of consistency. I would not be surprised if ViaSat came in and said that we can do it cheaper / give you more margin on the price of passes. If true, AA have a fiduciary responsibility to generate higher returns to their stakeholders. You may not be unique in having a grumble about this inconsistency, but I doubt that it would bother most passengers.

@Lucky- Thanks for posting this - good to know. By the way, your "tip of the hat" link to View from the Wing links to one of your own reviews. 🙂

@ Nobody in particular -- Yes, and no, I don't think it's quite that straightforward. Sure, they have a fiduciary duty to deliver the highest return to their shareholders, but there are long term goals vs. short term goals. It's not purely about the revenue they generate from inflight wifi, but more about the overall product they offer, and how that attracts business travelers.

American is filled with a whole bunch of dumbasses that never truly consider the effect of their actions. They should just make for an easy transition and use Gogos new faster service instead of switching providers. Just like they chose the absolute garbage Zodiak seats in the 787 that aren't exactly winning people over. All the decisions American make seems hollow minded

I just want fast reliable WiFi when I travel, I don't care who the company is as long as it's fast. I also think for the prices that AA charges they could offer WiFi free for FC pax's.

I like it because VSAT's stock popped on the news 🙂

It doesn't personally impact me as work typically covers wifi but I'm a United flyer and even though United's lack of consistency shouldn't matter from a cost standpoint as they don't offer monthly passes for their own wifi (they only use Gogo on their ERJ-170 flights), I hate how many different "versions" they have. The A320's have a different wifi system than the 737's and the ERJ's use Gogo, then there's a fourth system I've recently encountered on some (but not all) of their new 737-900ER's. A320 wifi is typically flat fee per flight while the 737 service is typically tiered based on tier of wifi and you can select in 1 hour increments. It boggles my mind why they have such a fragmented offering...

@ Lucky -- agreed, but I suspect that quite a few business travellers have free Gogo as a side-benefit of having a particular Amex or via other means. Besides, do we know what routes a 737 MAX will go on? I doubt that it will be TATL or TPAC (or even North to South America) due to range restrictions, so no the *chance* of no wifi for 5-6 hours is probably unlikely to bother many pax. And who knows, complimentary ViaSat internet may be a benefit of EXP AA or a benefit of a card by the time it has spread out through the fleet.

Its about $ it always is and you of all people shouldn't be surprised by this. Airlines have been gouging us for years, this just confirms it. I dont use it when I fly but for someone like you I understand the frustration. I think the only answer now is to find an airline one can use for a particular flight that meets our requirements. I know others will disagree but the days of being loyal to one airline are over. Good report as always Ben why I read the blog

Even if you don’t have a monthly Gogo pass, at the moment your best option is to purchase a 24 hour Gogo pass in advance, as it’s cheaper than what you can buy aboard.

I wouldn't say this is universally true. Alaska often has "buy 30 get 90" offers for $5 on short flights (Vegas/Bay Area/SoCal) that's offered onboard. Considering that you lose time on both ends of the flight anyways, this is usually an OK deal.

Now, for transcon LAX-JFK... buy beforehand or prepare to pay up.

Competition is good. NoGo has been shafting is long enough with their garbage prices that never seem to stop increasing.

Gogo won't be going away - yet. 140 aircraft will be upgraded to the newest 2Ku satellite service, while the remaining ones using Gogo will remain on the ATG service.

Consider this a bake off between services now with 3 players. It will be interesting to see if AA continues to allow providers to set pricing, or if they'll eventually shift to a model where they pay based on bandwidth. Secondarily, shifting more than 150 aircraft to any sole provider would also challenge supply chains to get installs done in a reasonable window.

If history shows us where AA's priorities are:
Delta has enabled perks like free movies and premium TV based on your seat # and validating this real time when streaming; AA hasn't done this, and we have 737s and 319s with PTVs, and some with absolutely nothing and premium cabin customers forking over $5 to stream a movie.

What good is a wifi pass for internet that's so slow even basic browsing is impossible? The single 3G connection for the entire plane just doesn't work...

There should be a way that the AIRLINES can offer a higher-priced monthly subscription which covers wifi on all aircraft, irrespective of the system being used.

There is no such thing as "Fiduciary Duty" regarding a Listed Co. ,shareholders are last to get their money in a bankruptcy. Ben is right when he mentions long term strategy. If it were simply shareholder value then Enron and other "Busts" would have gotten away it.Finally as Ben subtly suggested what if this decision ultimately causes the share price to decline,are company execs held accountable based on "Fiduciary duty"? No they aren't.

As long as AA routes it through aainflight.com it could be a seamless process -

United is way fragmented in their WiFi offerings.

I also have a monthly gogo pass. Now that the airlines are moving to different solutions, my monthly pass is of much less utility. Did the airlines take this into account? Work together for interoperability and come up with a solution that puts passengers first.

I flew on Saturday (MIA-DFW) and we were not able to use our gogo membership, we had to buy it during the flight ($12 for 2 hours, plus the $60 monthly)
I agree with you, I would rather have consistency, even if it's a little bit slower.
Will definitely cancel gogoair.

I was on my first AA with viasat plane yesterday (SFO-ORD and ORD-BOS - same plane, flights 40 and 1569), and it sucked!! Internet service came on and off during both flights, and even when on would be on a maybe a minute, and then off for 10. This was not wifi connectivity problems, as that connection was solid ... it was the connection to the viasat system (the page the browser redirects to - aa.viasat.com - show current status, and it was red for at least 90% of the time). A lot of passengers were complaining - I chatted up one of the flight attendants, and she said the new service was terrible.

Hopefully these are kinks that they'll work out ... but last night, I really longed for Gogo, if it's slow!!

The only thing "consistent" about Gogoinflight service is that it is a complete rip-off, with repeated drops, breaks in connectivity, slower than molasses in the arctic! They are happy to charge exorbitant prices and take your money for squat. Gogo should be ashamed of themselves. It is outrageous!

I was on my first AA Viasat flight on 4/5/2018. LGA to ORD. It was freaking amazing. 17gbs download speed. Very reliable and I was able to login with my gogo credentials. I was actually able to VPN and get in an hour of productive work during the short flight.

Another note, no cutoff of service at 10,000 feet. Viasat worked all the way to the gate. I've been spoiled, I will never look at gogo the same again.

Suck now since i fly more AA and viasat is not free for me with T-Mobile! And United always had their own service. No more Wi-Fi on planes.