Today was my first flight on a GoGo Wifi equipped flight on Air Canada, or any other airline for that matter! I have been looking forward to this ever since I heard of the service a few years ago, that allows you to connect to the Internet from any wifi equipped device while on a commercial airplane.
I have always looked forward to flying as a little bit of an escape from the outside world, but there are times when connectivity will help you with that project deadline, or just take your mind off the things you left on the ground.
Currently the service is only available on select Air Canada aircraft flying between Toronto, Montreal and Los Angeles. Part of this fact is because the service relies on terrestrial access points which are only currently licensed in the US. Air Canada is in the trial phase of this service, and I can say that because it has been used on various airlines in the US for the past couple of years, the login process, and the service itself is very polished.
Cost is currently $7.99 which for this five hour flight is pretty reasonable, but I have to say I am not sure if I would use the service on a 2.5 hour flight. Not because it is cumbersome to use, but because of the cost.
You start by creating a GoGo account, which will allow you to log in multiple times on your flight, and make future flights quicker to go through the login process. It also allows you login to multiple devices, however only one at a time. Enter you're credit card data, and you are good to go. I must say I was surprised by the speed, and the ease of use of the system.
Services like YouTube and Skype are fully functional, even though GoGo has stated that high bandwidth applications would be blocked. I called my wife on Skype, emailed photos from my iPhone to my iPad. Uploaded those photos to Flickr from my iPad, and wrote this blog post!
So the verdict is the service works as advertised, and something I wouldn't use all the time, but would not hesitate to use if I had a business reason to do so. Following are some screen captures of the setup and login process... Oh and one of an error I received after first logging in... I found it funny that they were able to charge my card, but could not immediately provide Internet Access. This error rectified itself 10 seconds later though!
And for the record, this post was created on my iPad, the perfect device for Airline Internet Use!
Good info. I've not taken an
thethoughtherder (not verified) on Fri, 04/23/2010 - 21:02Good info. I've not taken an air Canada flight since this has been introduced but have a few lined up in the next couple of months and will no doubt give it a try. While I think 'free' would be a better price $7.99 isn't to bad and I can see me paying for the skype and email access alone.
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