$1,200 Bill For Using In-Flight Wi-Fi

A 30MB plan for $29 is a cruel joke. And then it gets worse.

So what does it take to rack up $1200 of internet use? In my case, just 155 page views, mostly to my email. I know this because for the first time I counted up my page views to see where all the dollars went. I wish I could blame an addiction to NetFlix or some intellectual documentary that made me $1200 smarter. However, the Singapore Airlines internet was painfully slow, so videos would be impossible and that means I didn’t get any smarter… except about how to charge a lot of money for stuff. I did learn that.

At one point, I spent about an hour uploading one 4mb powerpoint doc. That doc probably cost me $100 to upload, so I hope my team liked it. I actually even emailed them a warning that my upload was taking a while. That email probably cost me $10. And yes, the pricing per mb was disclosed on sign-up, but I bought the $30 package, slept through most the flight, and really didn't think I'd end up a thousand bucks past the limit.
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This blows ATT / Verizon data charges outta the water.

Scary
 
No warning "Hey, you've about to be charged a $@$#@ load of money, please disconnect"? No?
 
While there is no excuse for that kind of bill, the fact that the person never said exactly how much bandwidth he used is interesting. Also he complains about the slow speed of the connection, but that makes me wonder what the bill would have been if the speed was higher.
 
Found an article on the same website that says access is $5 a MB, if this is the case than he used just over 234 MB, but this raises the question, why in hell would he use this service, especially when he said he was informed of the cost for data before using it?

Highway robbery? Sure, but that's what he signed up for and then cried later when what they told him was true.
 
DarkStar_WNY said:
Found an article on the same website that says access is $5 a MB, if this is the case than he used just over 234 MB, but this raises the question, why in hell would he use this service, especially when he said he was informed of the cost for data before using it?

Highway robbery? Sure, but that's what he signed up for and then cried later when what they told him was true.
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Let's say that 4MB doc he was sending kept losing packets from the plane to the ground so it ends up using 40MB total to send, is that feasible?
 
Airport and airline internet "services" are garbage. I Had to send a quick email from the termial in Rome/Ciampolo so I signed up for their 4.95EURO wifi for 1 hour package. My Galaxy S4 would not connect to any website at all and timed out non stop. I say this 100% truthfully, once I paid for the wifi package I could no longer laod any devices. So I thought maybe the wifi provider only limited wireless clients to actual laptops. So I pulled my laptop out and tried to log into my email. Every single attempt to load anything timed out. Not a single page loaded. I then tried my wife's laptop, which finally connected, loaded the Boingo login page, and allowed us to continue to browse and send an email.

Boingo charged me a fee for every single connection attempt from two smartphones and two laptops. Even though the wifi only worked on one laptop. I saw the additional charges on my bank account 3 days after the whole ordeal while I was at work. I called them up, they explained their "process" to me, and I then told them to eat a D and that I'll be disputing the charges with my card immediately. Got my refund the next week.

Long story short. F Boingo Wireless.
 
http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2014/08/19/singapore-airlines-inflight-wifi/

The answers are in there. This guy is nothing but an idiot who is playing the victim card and the media is feeding into it.

For thos not able to view the link, when one wants to use WiFi on Singapore Air, one is prompted to make the following choice:
1.) 5MB/$5.99; or
2.) 10MB/$10.99.

Either option EXPLICITLY states the bandwidth rate beyond what is included is $0.15/KB.

Now once you choice an option, it gives the following two choices again:
1.) Use the WiFi without interruption and agree to pay the outstanding balance; or
2.) Automatically sign out once the cap has been hit.

Seems pretty common sense to me.
 
Either option EXPLICITLY states the bandwidth rate beyond what is included is $0.15/KB.

If my maths is right, that works out to a cool $153.16 per mb.

Kinda not worth it.
 
Doom4life said:
http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2014/08/19/singapore-airlines-inflight-wifi/

The answers are in there. This guy is nothing but an idiot who is playing the victim card and the media is feeding into it.
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No one in their right mind would pay $150/MB for WiFi access. It's not so much playing the victim card as it is exposing a scam, which you could see by reading the guy's original blog post. It's actually very useful information and serves as a great warning to anyone else who might get suckered into it.
 
30MB?! Only if you're using a text terminal and don't plan on using Lynx.
 
pxc said:
No one in their right mind would pay $150/MB for WiFi access. It's not so much playing the victim card as it is exposing a scam, which you could see by reading the guy's original blog post. It's actually very useful information and serves as a great warning to anyone else who might get suckered into it.
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It saying "I'm a 'tard and can't do math. So someone else needs to clean my poopy diaper."
 
Considering how incapable most people are coping at life without using their cell phone, I'm surprise there aren't more stories like this of people getting charged up the wazzoo for using the internet.
 
Geeze, just put movies on the device and take off.

If your job demands you to be connected, then your job should pay if they are expecting you to be connected while in flight.
 
jpm100 said:
It saying "I'm a 'tard and can't do math. So someone else needs to clean my poopy diaper."
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You guys are assuming Mr. idiot even read the terms. Most idiots just click the yes button and do not read anything at all. Is the pricing extortionate? Yes. Is it the user's fault? Yes. Is this worth a story? Not really.
 
Russian Aeroflot was the same, 10 bucks for 10mb, but the plan had either the option to keep charging you when you hit the 10mb or just to cut you off.
 
Doom4life said:
http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2014/08/19/singapore-airlines-inflight-wifi/

The answers are in there. This guy is nothing but an idiot who is playing the victim card and the media is feeding into it.

For thos not able to view the link, when one wants to use WiFi on Singapore Air, one is prompted to make the following choice:
1.) 5MB/$5.99; or
2.) 10MB/$10.99.

Either option EXPLICITLY states the bandwidth rate beyond what is included is $0.15/KB.

Now once you choice an option, it gives the following two choices again:
1.) Use the WiFi without interruption and agree to pay the outstanding balance; or
2.) Automatically sign out once the cap has been hit.

Seems pretty common sense to me.
Click to expand...

The media always does this when reporting these types of human interest clickbait stories. People REALLY need to hold themselves accountable for idiotic things that they do.
 
You know I miss flying being one of those places you could get a reprieve from being "connected". I hate that wifi is on planes now. Its entirely impractical due to cost and it just creates the same annoying public atmosphere that exists in an airport but now at 35,000 feet up.

People need periods of time to be disconnected as it allows for some of the fatigue to even out. Airports are noisy , crowded , uncomfortable and now a security hazard to get through. It just seems like airlines are doing everything they can to make an already challenging experience even more miserable.

I value my disconnections from the net when they are required.

Whatever I guess I'm just "Old Man Yells at Cloud" about it..
 
It stated $0.15 per 100/kb
When compared to other top airlines it is clearly a scam! Guess who's prices are about to drop by massive amounts?
We need an end to telecom consumer price gouging. There needs to be consumer price protection levels put in place. We have all heard of too many consumer mistakes costing thousands of dollars when there isn't any technical reason for these cost exasperation's, other then to fuck the consumer.
 
He probably got a firmware update to his phone while in flight. Tough luck :D
 
Oh yes, being informed about the charges of a service, then voluntarily using that service and being charged the amount they said they would charge is just unfair.

This is life in entitlement world. I blame liberal parents.
 
Godmachine said:
You know I miss flying being one of those places you could get a reprieve from being "connected". I hate that wifi is on planes now.

People need periods of time to be disconnected as it allows for some of the fatigue to even out.
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Which is why I like taking vacations where I'll have little or no access to phones or the internet.

- Sorry, but I won't have access when I'm on the cruise, might have some access when I go ashore, so if there is an emergency send me an email and I'll get back with you in a day or 2. :)
 
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