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GoGo is the domestic WiFi provider of choice for a good number of US Airlines including Delta, United, and American Airlines amongst others. The plans that are offered vary from a 1-hour pass at $5 all the way up to a recurring monthly plan for $50 for a specific airline or $60 for use on all GoGo equipped airlines. All GoGo’s plans are for full internet access and allow the user to surf the web, check emails, send messages and do pretty much anything other than stream to your device.
But that looks as if it’s about to change.
First up let’s take a look at the issues with GoGo and, from my perspective, there are two:
- The performance is often sketchy and the connections drops far too often for my liking – It’s especially annoying if it drops while you’re saving something to an online server.
- There’s nothing between a 1-hour pass at $5 and an all-day pass at $16 (advance purchase only – it’s $20 if purchased on the aircraft). If I’m on a 3 hour flight (which happens quite regularly) it annoys me that I have to pay up for an all-day pass that I’m clearly not going to get value from.
Well, GoGo are now introducing a product that may solve the first of my issues if not the second and it’s called a “Messaging Pass“.
GoGo Messaging Pass
GoGo’s Messaging Pass allows passengers to use applications like iMessage, Viber, WhatsApp and Skype on their mobile devices for a low fee of “under $3”.
Per GoGo:
The messaging pass can only be purchased on mobile devices and can be purchased in the same way a passenger purchases an Internet session – by launching your mobile browser and selecting “Messaging Pass” from the in-flight portal home page.
GoGo say that the Messaging Pass “is available on most GoGo equipped flights in the US and Canada” so, as that statement is in the present tense, I assume that this is up and running already – has anyone spotted it yet?
It’s worth noting that not only can this pass only be purchased on mobile devices but you will not be able to access emails if all you have is the Messaging Pass. The pass has been specifically introduced to allow passengers to text/message and that’s pretty much it.
Good News For GoGo Users?
Messaging doesn’t take up much bandwidth at all so there’s a chance that this will reduce the load on the GoGo inflight servers.
Up until now, passengers who purchase a pass just so they can send a few messages almost certainly end up checking emails and surfing the web as well – why not? They’ve paid for it. And that takes up bandwidth and that slows things down for everybody.
With the Messaging Pass as an option those passengers will pay less, will still be able to send their messages but shouldn’t be hogging bandwidth from those of us who actually need/want to be online to do some work (in theory).
Purchasing GoGo Messaging Pass
It would appear that there isn’t a “buy before you fly” option for GoGo Messaging Pass as their website still only shows the regular product options:
And you still only see those options if you access the GoGo webpage from a mobile device.
I’d expect that the option to purchase a Messaging Pass to appear when you log in to GoGo (from a mobile device) once you’re onboard the aircraft and above 10,000ft.
Bottom Line
I’m looking at this as a positive thing that may improve speeds for the rest of us that need to use the internet for more than just a few messages but there could also be a flip side to this.
If GoGo hasn’t addressed the issue of passengers sending/receiving files via the various messaging applications (files like photographs) then this could be a bandwidth killer. At “under $3” this will be an attractive proposition to a public that seemingly can’t be out of touch with their friends and families for more than a few minutes and I expect a lot of people to be using this. If they’re all sending each other photos (as people are liable to do) this will do nothing to improve the already sketchy service that GoGo provides.
I guess I’ll have to reserve judgement until we get the first few reports of Messaging Pass in action.
