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It’s good that Air New Zealand have finally launched their Wi-Fi service. I note from pre-launch speed tests Internet speeds between 2Mbps-3Mbps both upload and download. If you’ve tried the service since it’s launched what speeds you’ve been getting?
It’s curious launch pricing is $40 per flight – regardless of whether its a short trans-Tasman flight or 10+ hour long haul flight.
Anyone care to share impressions of the launch pricing and service?
If they have it on NZ8 tonight, i’ll pass. Almost the last place i can stay disconnected for an extended period and prefer it that way 😁
As i mentioned elsewhere though, $40 is not much really in relation to the cost of the flights ($400 to $5000), and is probably expensable for business travellers.
I’m not flying to the US again until October so won’t get another chance to play with it until then.
I’ve been on A320s or 789s so haven’t been able to try it 🙁
Launch pricing can only be Air NZ getting a feel for what people will and won’t pay. I’ve flown a number of other carriers with wifi and Air NZ has by far the most expensive pricing. Definitely wouldn’t pay for it on a Tasman flight and would seriously debate it for long haul but I’ll say I would find wifi useful inflight for clearing emails (but who wants to open that up when you’re sitting next to someone that can glance at your screen?) or catching up on other stuff. Flying is down time so if you get something done it means you don’t have to allocate time on the ground to it. Infrequently some things I need to look at are based on the internet and aren’t downloadable (at least that I can ascertain but I’m not great at that stuff), and it peeves me off I can’t use inflight time to look at it. In this regard, I hate technology and would rather black and white print. And having ridiculously slow speeds like what I’ve generally experienced on Emirates is functionally useless. Some flights on EK have been ‘ok’ but most weren’t. I’ll probably be lucky last to experience it. I don’t feel like I’ve been on as many NZ flights in recent times.
If nobody pays for the service because they think it’s overpriced then NZ will need to lower it.
I personally think $40 is a bit on the high side for the service, especially when you compare it to the likes of Virgin Australia offering it for $20. Also only offering a single plan seems rather strange.
Would I pay that to use it? I don’t know.
At that price I definitely wouldn’t on a night service back from the US, and definitely wouldn’t on a TT flight. On a long daytime flight I potentially would, and likewise on evening NZ flights to the US I might be inclined to.
I was intending to use the service last Friday when I received a preflight notification. I decided against it when I saw the $40 price. I was very surprised as I participated in some customer research for NZ last year and I don’t recollect suggested prices being anywhere near that level. The pages available free loaded quickly but can’t comment on others as decided I wouldn’t pay the amount asked. I am staggered that as a HVC or premium passenger one doesn’t receive this as a membership benefit or at least one should be entitled to a significant discount.
$40 flying TT is expensive.
I’m curious on the AKL-LAX-LHR route if it’s $40 per sector or the whole trip. Same with AKL-RAR-LAX. The rest of NZs routes I think are point to point.
EY had I think $25USD for 24hrs basically which covered you for your 2 flights which was good pricing considering most of their customers transit the Middle East so are taking 2 flights.
Having an option for TT at a lower cost should be offered given it’s a shorter flight.
I guess you can argue it’s ‘only $40’ vs the cost of a business class ticket in which case you can argue it’s so small in comparison that it should be free for business class. Yes it should be something which can be written off as business expense etc as well. So you can argue it either way.
I think there’s been some change to other carriers initial Wifi plans but don’t recall details off the top of my head as to who gets it free and who still charges for premium cabins.
I’m not sure I support the idea of HVCs getting it free. The technology probably comes at a cost and needs to recovered, or maybe it gets built into general fares in which case those not using the service are subsidising those that do. And if people see high fares they book elsewhere.
There’s probably a reasonable number of HVCs on flights as well so the numbers may add up if you wanted to offer free internet. Then there are those that don’t use the internet eg very young or maybe very old, or leisure travellers that can live without the internet for one flight so no revenue generated from them.
NZ has a reasonable number of evening time flights as well so people may have been up during the day, get on board, eat, try and sleep, get up and eat before landing so how much time is left in those flights to really be using Wifi?
There’s a number of factors to be weighed up and I don’t have the numbers to really pass comment.
I will say though the pricing structure needs to have the additional option for use for a shorter time period eg 1-3hrs. $40 TT is not the same value as $40 AKL-LHR
There is of course quite a difference of spend within the HVC definition. Koru is obviously significantly cheaper than the spend one must achieve to be G or E – unless one was lucky enough to receive one of the recent bonus SP promotions with the ability to maximise it during the period – I personally was somewhat disappointed not to receive one of these promotions as it seems unfair that these were not universal given how hard it is to earn many SP domestically and TT these days. The regional SP earn in NZ is pathetic in many cases.
The other thing which I think is important is that maximum bandwidth is shared across all connected customers on an aircraft so having more connected at a cheaper fee probably doesn’t necessarily increase cost above s maximum bandwidth level. If NZ factors the maximum cost divided by all seats it may not be markedly high.
I used it as part of a trial in November last year on a trip to the UK. I was very impressed with the performance, especially flying at 35,000 feet over the middle of the ocean! I imagine the $40 is per sector? So flying to the UK it would actually be $80 to stay connected – that seems too high to me.
It looks like Air New Zealand are experimenting with WiFi pricing currently. Tonight current Air NZ Wifi price is $30 on a flight from AKL-SFO (as reported to @TravelTalkNZ over Twitter by Nathan Mercer). Over time we may see lower pricing still – especially on shorter flights.
I just flew China Airlines who gave me free wifi. The price, had I paid, was $25 for 24 hours access.
I just flew China Airlines who gave me free wifi. The price, had I paid, was $25 for 24 hours access.
Do you know why you got it free? Was it because you were flying business or maybe due to being a frequent flyer with China Airlines?
They had (or maybe are still having) a promotion for BC and PE – register in advance and get 24 hours free.
They had (or maybe are still having) a promotion for BC and PE – register in advance and get 24 hours free.
That’s handy. Did you happen to get a feel for how fast it was – such as a SpeedTest.net result?
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