Holiday Travel Tip: Save $$ By Purchasing In-Flight WiFi in Advance
In-flight internet is a great way to relax, be productive, and triage trip disruptions, but it can be costly. Depending on your airline, you can spend anywhere from a few bucks for a half hour to $37+ for all day access when buying onboard.
What many people don’t know is that Gogo, one of the major in-flight internet providers, offers a substantial discount on passes purchased in advance. Up to a 60% discount for 24 hours access — if you think $19 is steep, wait til you’re onboard and they want $30 for a single flight.
The passes are good on any domestic airline flight with Gogo (Delta also offers an international option) and are valid for a year. Participating airlines include Delta, Virgin America, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Air Canada, and United.
With United you want to be careful — they use multiple internet providers and a Gogo pass can only be redeemed on a flight with Gogo. So for United flights you want to delay purchasing until 48 hours before your flight when you can check your itinerary to see who the internet provider is.
If you’re flying Southwest, you’re in luck. Southwest Airlines wifi is a flat $8 fee with no advance purchase required.
JetBlue is even better — their Fly-Fi is free, and a modoest $9 to upgrade to Fly Fi+ if you’re using a VPN doing heavy gaming.
So if you’ll be flying over the holidays and considering buying inflight wifi access, consider purchasing it in advance!
Confused about your comment about Delta having its own pricing structure, but then saying Delta is a participating airline. I know I used to buy Gogo passes in advance directly from Gogo for use on Delta — is that no longer an option? If I buy a monthly pass from Gogo do you know if it will work on DL? Thanks.
Thanks for the question Bill! I dug into the details a little more (I’m not a Delta flyer). Turns out the Delta Global Pass is in addition to the All-Day domestic pass. So you can still use the All Day Pass on domestic Delta flights. Sorry for the confusion! Post has been updated to clarify.
Thanks, much clearer now 🙂