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No, it isn’t April 1st. A new startup company, calling itself OneGo, really does plan to offer frequent fliers the option to purchase unlimited US domestic flights, for $1,500/month.
The flights would be on regularly scheduled, commercial airlines like American, Delta United and Virgin America and would even come with added bonuses like inflight wifi and lounge access.
There will be a $750 one-time “New Traveler” account set up fee and after that it’s up to the passenger to select a package that works best for them.
OneGo Monthly Base Package:
- $1,500/month
- Unlimited direct flights
- Flights must be booked at least 7 days in advance.
- Maximum of 4 open reservations at any one time.
Change fees:
- $100/per flight if changed more than 7 days from departure
- $200/per flight if changed within 7 days of departure
Add-On Options:
- Last minute booking, up to 6 hours before the flight – extra $1,000/month
- Unlimited changes – extra $750/month
- 4 more open reservations – extra $500/month
Included Extras:
- 1 Checked Bag
- Priority Pass Prestige (worth $399/year)
- GoGo WiFi on all GoGo equipped flights (worth $720/year)
- $85 credit to cover TSA Pre-check application.
Other Information:
- Flights will be bookable throughout the OneGo App – not the airlines websites
- All flights are direct
- All flights are booked as discounted economy fares
- Tariffs are month-to-month, no long term commitment required.
- Can book “any direct flight that is offered from the routes included in our service area that has an available seat within the designated class.”
- Importantly, for most frequent fliers, you will still earn miles and will be able to enjoy whatever status benefits you have on the airlines you fly.
There are some serious limitations to the service at this point and some questions that are yet to be answered.
Firstly, the routes currently offered are quite limited – only 30 so far and all centred around California and the West Coast (click to enlarge).
As you can see from the screenshot above, “routes in additional regions will be available soon”
The company say that customers will be able to “book any direct flight that is offered from the routes included in our service area that has an available seat within the designated class.”
To my mind, that raises a few questions, so, I reached out to the company and asked for some clarification:
Q: How does OneGo define “discounted economy”, is it any economy fare that isn’t the fully-flexible fare or is it something else?
A: “We utilize the industry recognized definition, which is exactly as you have described it. Discounted Economy tickets include all booking classes with the exception of full-fare Economy tickets that are found in the “Y” booking class and obviously any booking classes that fall within First or Business cabins.”
Q: Is there a specific discounted coach fare bucket (or selection of discounted coach fare buckets) that need(s) to be available or are all discounted coach fare buckets bookable?
A: “As long as there is a discounted Economy class ticket available, OneGo’s customers will have access to that seat. As discussed [above], discounted Economy class refers to all inventory buckets below full-fare Economy “Y” class inventory. We are working with the airlines to try and obtain full availability with “Y” class inventory as well, but do not expect that to be in place by the launch of service.”
Q: Will the OneGo App see all the flights that a customer browsing the airlines website sees or will there be limitations?
A: “The OneGo app is tailored to only show non-stop flights on the routes where we will provide service with the airlines that we are working with. By default, it will show all non-stop flights that currently have availability in any discounted Economy class, as discussed above.”
Q: What happens if a flight gets cancelled or goes mechanical? What will be the process for rebooking (via the airline or via OneGo) and will there be any OneGo fees to pay for a rebooking?
A: “OneGo wants to provide the best experience for our travelers and therefore it will most likely be a combination of both the airline and OneGo working to get the traveler on the next flight with available seats. Travelers will always have the option to call our customer service phone line to speak with a representative that will assist them in securing a seat. Often times this can be accomplished more efficiently at the airport though and the airline may already have re-accomodated the traveler with the best option before the traveler even knows that there is an issue. OneGo will always put in place the procedure that causes the least amount of inconvenience for our customers and will not charge any fees when there is an issue outside of their control.”
Q: Do tariffs have to start on the 1st of the month or is it just a 30-day period?
A: “A customer can begin their travel package on the day of month of their choosing. The travel package will then last for the greater of 30 days or the day of the following month that is before the day the travel package commences. For example if your travel package starts on July 19th it will last through August 18th. Since February is a shorter month though, a package started on February 21st will last until March 21st (2016 is a Leap Year).”
Q: The FAQs say that the tariffs are “month to month” and “no long term commitment is required” so, for example, could a customer sign up in January, pay $1,500 for February and then do nothing until he/she needs to fly again (say in August) and then pay $1,500 again? Are there any penalties for this?
A: “OneGo recognizes that a customer’s travel, payment and personal information are sensitive data and therefore we intend to implement a very strict privacy policy. Part of this policy will be to cancel a customer’s account and completely delete their records after a specific period of non-travel. We are still working with our attorneys to determine if this period of non-travel should be three months, nine months, or even longer. We want to make sure that we properly balance the desires of our customers with our responsibility to protect their personal information. In your example their is a chance that your account would be canceled and all of your records deleted if you had not traveled between February and August. No worries though, as you can easily sign up for a new account, although you would once again be subject to the $750 New Traveler Account setup fee the same as any other new customer.” (Bolding is mine.)
Fist of all I have to say that I was impressed with the speed of the response I got and of the completeness of the answers provided. If their customer service is always going to be like that then it bodes well.
The fact that all economy class fares under the fully-flexible fares are eligible for booking is very good news. Limitations on fare buckets would probably have made this a non-starter for a lot of travellers.
The biggest issue I can see is with the cancellation of an account after a period of non-activity. I don’t buy the fact that a “strict privacy policy” would require the deletion of all records – especially after as short a period of time as 3 months if that’s what they decide). If OneGo are going to insist on this then an inactivity period of at least 12 months would appear much more reasonable.
My Thoughts:
Truthfully, I’m not sure I understand how the company is going to make money out of this. Presumably they’ve done a deal with the airlines to get a discount on the fares but I can’t see how that would be enough.
Using the company’s San Francisco – San Diego route as an example:
A typical heavy traveller will probably book their flights no more than a month out and will be doing trips that are anything from same-day-returns to 5 night stays. A quick ITA Matrix search using those parameters shows that the retail price for those flights is between $447 and $586. So what kind of discount are OneGo getting that they can make this work?
Even if I use the most competitive route OneGo offer (LAX-SFO), which has 5 airlines competing for passengers, the numbers still don’t look great:
There’s a possibility that I’m missing something from this equation which helps make the math look more promising – I’m guessing the company will say that the add-ons will bring in revenue to help, but I still don’t think that will be enough – I’d love to be proven wrong.
It’s really great that companies are looking to offer new and innovative travel products to the market and, if they can make them both profitable (for them) and economical for the traveller then so much the better. I genuinely wish OneGo all the success in the world, hopefully they prove me wrong and I get to try out their trans-con package one day.
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