BA wi-fi pricing revealed as in-flight trials begin

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• Lumma says:

  7 May7 May 05:31

  Those prices are an absolute bargain compared to what Iberia charge for Wi-Fi. $20 for 22mb of data. I didn’t even waste my time connecting to the “free 4mb” they give you in business as it seemed such a pointlessly small amount of data

  • James says:

    7 May7 May 08:10

    Is it really a bargain though? Whilst I applaud BA for offering this new service, it doesn’t surprise me one bit that BA have gone for the price it sky high option, no doubt which will be accompanied by some marketing spin. JetBlue, for example, offer faster wifi for free. That is an extreme, and I’m not suggesting that, but BA are missing a trick again.

• Andrew says:

  7 May7 May 05:43

  Does anyone know how much this would cost BA to install wifi across their fleet and also the cost of providing the service per flight after installation ? I am just interested in a ball park figure if anyone is “in the know”- a few million, hundreds of millions? Buses in some U.K. cities have had wifi for years , just wondering if the principle is the same for buses and planes. Many more passengers on plane versus bus ofcourse. Sorry if I sound a bit of an IT ignarmous, but I am!

  • callum says:

    7 May7 May 06:00

    I can’t help with figures, but the wifi on buses and on planes is not comparable. The bus simply connects to the mobile network – it’s effectively a fancier version of the portable 3G/4G wifi hotspots you can buy (many systems I saw in places like South America were literally just one of those dongles at the front of the bus). On the plane it will need to connect to satellites while moving across wide areas, and satellite connections are much more expensive and so tend to be much slower.

    The people using it will also be different. On most buses people will be coming and going all the time so most wouldn’t bother using the network, plus they’ll have access to their own mobile network. On the plane you have several hundred people with no other access to the internet who may want to use it for prolonged periods of time.

    • the real harry1 says:

      7 May7 May 08:09

      reportedly now down to $100K per aircraft plus the downtime/ opportunity cost – which would presumably be minimal & installation arranged during regular maintenance schedule

  • Mr Dee says:

    7 May7 May 06:00

    I don’t believe the buses use satellite for their connection so the ongoing costs are likely to be lower. I can’t see this costing a mega amount of money once the purchase of the equipment and installation is complete, but of course the satellite part will be pricey compared to the standard pricing of cable internet.

    Can’t give exact figures as I don’t know, but a bus would be considerably less for this system.

  • Xmenlongshot says:

    7 May7 May 07:38

    It’s about $150k per plane for the installation- I can’t talk to the ongoing running cost

• Lochlannn says:

  7 May7 May 06:13

  I’m a fan of the high-speed option. I have chosen flight times in the past to avoid missing certain live sports (though have also watched really poor quality SkySports while on AA flight)

• Paul says:

  7 May7 May 06:13

  “For every passenger who refuses to fly BA due to the seating or food quality, there is probably another who refuses purely on the basis that they cannot work in the air.”

  I, for one, and many others I expect, think that the ability to legitimately ignore e-mails for 12 hours on a long haul flight is a huge plus point rather than a negative point!

  • Alan says:

    7 May7 May 06:27

    Completely agree. The fact I can’t be contacted is a bonus.

    I occasionally go to Melbourne with work, it’s one of the best 26 hours of my working year… Champagne and no emails!

  • Donna says:

    7 May7 May 08:05

    Couldn’t agree more!

  • Lumma says:

    7 May7 May 09:30

    The big fear I have with ever increasing Wi-Fi speeds on planes is the possibility of having to listen to someone making phone calls for hours on end.

• Anna says:

  7 May7 May 06:23

  OT – I’ve always assumed using avios for long haul Economy isn’t worth it, but I’m looking at Washing DC for next year to explore Virginia and the city itself. 3 x economy redemptions using a 2 4 1 voucher comes to £822 in taxes and fees, which is slightly less than half of the cash price. Using the ITA fare matrix, the BA fare is comparable with other airlines. To go up to CW one way would be an extra £700 for the 3 of us, however the flight is only 7-8 hours which I’m sure we could cope with.

  This would give my voucher a value of 40,000 avios which isn’t brilliant but does mean paying less avios and cash overall. I don’t think PE is worth it for redemptions as the taxes are similar to CW.

  If I didn’t have the 2 4 1 I would consider going via Dublin to reduce the taxes further – though an option would be to do that anyway as I haven’t even triggered the 2 4 1 yet so will have it to use for another 2 years anyway from the trigger date which is looking to be around September.

  Any thoughts?

  • Alex W says:

    7 May7 May 06:38

    What about PE out and CW back. For your third passenger you could buy a PE return and upgrade one leg using Avios.

    I used a 241 in economy once to Vegas, but only because the cash fare in WT was £900 each. Normally it’s surely a waste of Avios in long haul economy.

  • John says:

    7 May7 May 06:56

    Voucher costs £195 minus 5000 avios from increased earnings on BAPP vs BA free card

    So you spent £195 to save 35000 avios (which could be used for something else), sounds ok to me, sure you could get higher value elsewhere but only if you would actually pay the asking price

  • JamesB says:

    7 May7 May 07:17

    If you would consider going via Dublin then why not Inverness? Given the flight time you would need an afternoon departure to DC. Also, if you wish to make a short break in Inverness pay close attention to hotel pricing as it can be very high.

    • Anna says:

      7 May7 May 09:37

      I live in the North West so I don’t think there are flights from Manchester or Liverpool to Inverness. Who flies from Inverness to Washington? Or you saying fly Inverness-Heathrow-Washington? This would add a lot to my journey time, Liverpool to Dublin is 55 minutes and £20 which is why it would be my preferred route.

      • James A says:

        7 May7 May 09:49

        You can fly to INV from MAN

        • Anna says:

          7 May7 May 10:21

          Who with? Would it save me any money doing that?

  • Klaus-Peter Dudas says:

    7 May7 May 08:21

    You could go from Inverness to save on APD and because it’s in the UK you can use the 241 voucher.

    • Anna says:

      7 May7 May 09:39

      Interesting, but again I don’t know any reasonably quick and cheap way to get from Lancashire to Inverness!

      • JamesB says:

        7 May7 May 10:06

        Would only be worthwhile if you had the time and wanted to take advantage of a short break in the city. The saving in APD x3 would effectively pay the Inverness trip so you’d be getting something extra for similar overall cost. As others have said you could fly MAN-INV with flybe and then use your 241 via LHR to IAD. Main downside are that INV-LHR is once daily (althougb I recall hearing both BA and KLM may go twice daily) at lunchtime and unless you can get a good deal someplacem hotels are quite expensive for what you get.

• Ollie C says:

  7 May7 May 06:33

  I fly to the USA with BA Club annually for a holiday and for a leisure traveller these WiFi prices look nuts, especially as I expect it is per person not per group. If it was a tenner for the flight I’d pay, but at these prices I’ll carry on stocking my Kindle and download some Netflix shows. For the same price as two WiFi passes on BA, at home I get a month of unlimited 1Gbps data. I hate that BA don’t even disguise their attempts to ream customers.

  • John says:

    7 May7 May 06:49

    It could be a group if you set up a device to function as a hotspot.

  • callum says:

    7 May7 May 08:02

    It’s almost as if the economics of providing internet access on a plane flying across the planet is different to that of your static house connected by high speed wires…

  • TGLoyalty says:

    7 May7 May 08:04

    I’m sure on flight wifi isn’t aimed at the average leisure customer though.

    Being able to work while flying is a big plus for some and those people will pay.

    Any chance the pricing structure is also being trialled? Different prices on different flights to ascertain pricing/demand or would that be too sophisticated for BA?

• Michael says:

  7 May7 May 06:53

  Maybe I’m in the minority but it think the prices aren’t actually that bad.

  • AndyGWP says:

    7 May7 May 07:42

    Suppose it partly depends on how long your long haul flight usually is 🙂

    • the real harry1 says:

      7 May7 May 08:51

      and if somebody else is paying 🙂 (expensable)

  • Paul says:

    7 May7 May 08:31

    You need to fly on the competition more. Almost double what AA are charging and higher than QR.

• Piero Tintori says:

  7 May7 May 06:57

  That’s very expensive, even more than other IAG airlines such as AerLingus!!! Emirates give you 500mb for $1…

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