Let me start off by saying that in flight WiFi can’t be beat, but lousy customer service for a new product can kill it off.
This past Wednesday I boarded Virgin America flight 404 from LAX for JFK and after we crossed the 10,000 foot mark on our ascent out of Los Angeles opened up my Mac Book Air and joined the GoGo set. I was offered a code granting me free access and it was smooth sailing. Then after a few hours of flying, all of a sudden, without warning, the ability to browse just stopped. Sure I could still Twitter, use my blog posting software and even chat, but the ability to browse just stopped.
The very professional and helpful flight attendants went to the pilot, and the system was reset (it takes 15 minutes to do this) and we were back on the air, in the air. But this came at a price. I had to pay $12.95 this time. Ok, so the free ride was over. No big deal. I’d gladly pay that for the convenience factor alone. But then the fun began. No less than twice on the remaining time in the air, about three hours, did the offline situation reappear.
GoGo’s Twitterer told me “We were making some changes to Gogo portal – it was free for a portion of the day which expired at approximately 11:30 am” which is fine. But to pay and have repeated interruptions just won’t fly in my book. I’ve asked for a refund for even if I did have two thirds of the trip with connectivity, I don’t think it’s fair to be charged and not get full service.
I’ll update this post later today, once I hear back from GoGo
UPDATE-> GOGINFLIGHT.COM came through with a credit, that was good for my next flight…THIS ONE. I’m up and online and WiFi connected.
Way to go GOGO!!