Singapore Airlines Billed Me $1,200 for the Internet

[BeyondGeography]

http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/singapore-airlines-billed-me-1200-for-the-internet

You know that epic feeling when your flight ends and you finally get to your destination? Now imagine taking those first steps off the plane, syncing your phone, and getting a $1200 bill for airplane internet use. That's what happened to me on Singapore Airlines today.

I had an otherwise enjoyable flight, but the sticker shock of being gouged $1200 made me feel like I was deplaning from Total Bastard Airlines, that old skit from SNL where they kick you off the plane with a "Buy BYE!"

So what does it take to rack up $1200 of internet use? In my case, just 155 page views, mostly to my email. I know this because for the first time I counted up my page views to see where all the dollars went. I wish I could blame an addiction to NetFlix or some intellectual documentary that made me $1200 smarter. However, the Singapore Airlines internet was painfully slow, so videos would be impossible and that means I didn’t get any smarter… except about how to charge a lot of money for stuff. I did learn that.

At one point, I spent about an hour uploading one 4mb powerpoint doc. That doc probably cost me $100 to upload, so I hope my team liked it. I actually even emailed them a warning that my upload was taking a while. That email probably cost me $10. And yes, the pricing per mb was disclosed on sign-up, but I bought the $30 package, slept through most the flight, and really didn't think I'd end up a thousand bucks past the limit.

[Hoppy]

1. Maybe omething in addition to your email, was downloading and updating during the entire flight?

[Erose999]

42. Probably tracking cookies and adware.

[Orrex]

2. That's like the time I ate food at a restaurant and then had to pay for it. Outrageous!

the pricing per mb was disclosed on sign-up, but I bought the $30 package, slept through most the flight, and really didn't think I'd end up a thousand bucks past the limit.

That's the entire article right there.

[LanternWaste]

9. I too remember being charged $35.00 for each french fry.

I too remember being charged $35.00 for each french fry.

[Ed Suspicious]

10. Don't forget the $10.00 per shake of salt, and $40.00 for a squeeze of ketchup.

[phil89]

27. Don't forget to check the price on the menu

though.

[Orrex]

11. When the prices are disclosed in advance, as in this case, that's really the end of it.

When the prices are disclosed in advance, as in this case, that's really the end of it.

[MattSh]

16. It's a model designed to deceive...

But hey, that's how a lot of businesses operate these days. Really, who really understands what a MB is? And who measures things by MB's these days anyway.

Charge by the flight, or by the hour, or by the minute. Those are concepts most people can easily understand.

[Orrex]

20. Smartphone data plans routinely set their prices based on data usage

If the user doesn't know what he's buying when he buys the 5 gig plan, then it's up to the user to self-educate.

I don't know how many gallons of paint it will take to cover my living room walls. Do I therefore not have to pay for any paint that exceeds my original incorrect estimate?

[Blue_Tires]

23. If it isn't something he can figure out, maybe he doesn't need to be buying it, then...

But the author can't be that ignorant to not know the quantity of a MB if he's the one who founded his own website

[petronius]

25. I wonder if the ad revenue from clicks on this 'damned airlines' article will

eventually add up to $1200? Dude could be making lemonade out of a lemon...

[Blue_Tires]

21. +1 Dude either wasn't paying attention

or he thought he'd get it reimbursed as a business expense...Either way, he's trying to dodge responsibility for his actions...

We've all seen this story before; the only thing that changes is the technology: In another era he would have been complaining about room service, the room mini-bar, long-distance phone charges, XXX-rated pay channel fees, etc. etc...

[Orrex]

22. They can pry the XXX-rated pay channel fees out of his cold, dead hand.

Wait. What?

[Dorian Gray]

43. How much internet

could this person have used in one flight? It's obviously exhorbitantly priced.

[Blue_Tires]

44. He said he fell asleep with his phone on

which can add up quick depending on what processes and services are running...

Yeah, it was high-priced, but the price *was* listed, the blogger still bought it, and just like cellular providers or ISPs of yesteryear (remember when you bought your online service from AOL or whoever for XX hours per month?), there are substantial penalties for going over the limit...

[Nye Bevan]

3. I've only ever done GoGo Inflight

and I think it was something like $9.95 but with unlimited data.

[pkdu]

13. I'm on GoGo as I type this.....39.99 for a month...unlimited

As someone who takes 16 flights a month it's a no brainer and a business expense.

[liberal N proud]

4. I can't think of anything that is so important that I need to browse for while in the air

$10 for a bag of chips is insane as well.
$25 for a checked bag is a little outrageous too.

If you use anything more than the seat on a plane, open your wallet.

[Helen Borg]

5. I just sleep or watch free movies...

Or read a book on my Kindle...

[pipoman]

6. Flight psychology has always interested me...

Watching people...for instance when boarding begins everybody at the gate running to get in line. ..it's assigned seats, why would one want to be in their cramped seat breathing other people's air any longer than necessary? First class...some may get a free upgrade or simply have more money than they need, but people who pay $1k for a 2 hour flight and a ham sandwich is beyond my comprehension. Why do airlines load the plane from front to back instead of back to front?

Then there are the toilet people. ...I go before the flight so I don't have to go into the over worked, pee smelling, closet except in extreme emergencies. Those who stand up under the overhead storage the second the plane gets to the terminal are interesting.

I don't need to buy movies, overpriced booze, or internet service.

[Anansi1171]

12. Why do people race past others and cut them off to simply stay

...Stuck in traffic. People are small, petty and needlessly competitive.

And dont drive while black these days...trust me it gets much worse.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

19. most people try to get on early so they can stow their bag

in the overhead instead of at their feet... and yes, the boarding process is stupid...

sP

[KamaAina]

26. Actually, the one and only time I ever flew first class, they served steak

it was an upgrade, of course. And they managed not to screw it up, thereby proving that the phrase "airline food" is only an oxymoron for most of us because the airlines' beancounters want it to be.

[SheilaT]

31. First class boards first, other than that they board back to front.

At least any plane I've been on with assigned seats does it that way.

[littlewolf]

7. I was on a cruise a while back and they had internet

and I forget how much it was, but it was expensive.
I laughed and told my wife there was nothing on the
net I needed to see that badly.
Yes even DU .. I can go 4 days without reading DU
and survive.

[onecent]

8. Holy shit...I fly to

Manila once a year for a month, although I am not sure I would use my computer on board..
seems to cumbersome for an older lady on a leisure trip to see her grandkids....so I just sit back and let it happen and watch people.
But I'm glad I saw your message anyway. Thanks.
You will probably save someone from spending money they didn't not expect.

[Historic NY]

14. Its like being blocked from using free wi-fi...

on a hotels property, unless you pay for it by the day or week You're stuck using their internet service even when yours works.

http://www.independenttraveler.com/blog/index.php/2014/10/08/mixed-signals-major-hotel-chain-fined-for-blocking-internet/

[Jenoch]

15. I remember once drinking

a $6 bottle of Evian water in a hotel room.

[Atman]

32. Bwhaha! My wife wasn't aware of the new mini-bar system.

I came out of the bathroom and she had been picking up all the goodies from the mini-bar to check out what they had to offer. She wasn't aware that many new mini-bars (this one, too) had sensors on them...once you removed the item from the mini-bar it was automatically charged to the room. We had to go down and explain that we never actually used any of the items my wife looked at. It would have been about a $100 bill just to look at some peanuts and a few bottles of booze.

[lumberjack_jeff]

17. cheap flights

[L0oniX]

18. In other words ..."I am stupid".

[Nye Bevan]

33. Not necessarily... See post 13, $2.50 per flight for unlimited data (nt)

[Initech]

34. Southwest charges like $8 per flight.

I've never had a use for it since I've never really flown any flights longer than four hours but charging per page and per MB used I can see where that would add up pretty quickly.

[CreekDog]

45. Why? It cost me $8 for internet access from my phone for a day's worth of flights.

Biggest ripoff? Come on.

[oldandhappy]

28. I fly the Pacific.

Take a sleeping pill for the part of the trip that coincides with my destination and read a book for the rest of the trip. Giggle when I get up to go to the bathroom and see all the cell phone lights. Kind of like fireflies in all the seats.

[brooklynite]

29. Caveat Emptor...

...took me all of 10 seconds to think "wifi on an international flight is going to be complicated" and to look up the billing policy:

"The price plans are reflected on the connectivity portal when you connect to the onboard hotspot. Depending on the connectivity service provider for your flight, the price plans available may either be volume-based (e.g. US$9.99 for 10 MB) or time-based (e.g. US$11.95 for 1 hour).

[randys1]

30. Putting aside the plane part of this, as long as we continue to allow FOR PROFIT companies

to decide what we have to pay for the commons, natural resources such as access to the internet, a necessity if I ever saw one, we deserve to be screwed out of every penny we have and we will be.

Down here on land, OUR land, dont you think it is a bit funny that we allow FOR PROFIT companies tell us what we have to pay for our gas, for instance, which does come out of OUR LAND

Our electricity which often comes from our land and even if it comes from a nuclear plant, who in the hell thought it would be a good idea to allow FOR PROFIT companies to get involved in providing NECESSITIES like that...

Water, etc

We just arent thinking straight

[ProfessorGAC]

35. Usually I'd Agree

But i'm having a hard time considering internet access a natural resource.

Even utilities (aside from water) aren't, but i buy that had we nationalized them 8 or 10 decades ago, we'd be better off today.

[randys1]

37. Internet access is

a.try to survive in today's economy without it
b. government played huge role in it's creation
c. turning access over to for profit companies is insane to me

Maybe just me, for instance you say utilities shouldnt be nationalized, if we cant agree on that we never will on internet

I think we have too much capitalism and not enough socialism, if it is 80/20 now in favor of capitalism I think it should be more like 50/50

[Orrex]

38. Could you explain how the internet is a "natural resource?"

A utility? Sure.

A natural resource? Um...

[randys1]

39. Commons, not natural resource...if i said that i meant to say commons

[Orrex]

40. Cool. I'm down with that.

[randys1]

41. I have a problem with how we provide food, what we charge or what we subsidize and dont

as well.

Here is how simple this ole capitalism deal really is, corporations exist to maximize profit and do nothing else.

If a corp is a good community participant or neighbor, it is not maximizing profit and a corp must do this.

The food sourcing or chain does not put nutrition first, it puts profit first. It does not put feeding everyone first, it puts profit first.

I was in a mini mart over the weekend and a young clerk was buying something in the store to go on break and I noticed the guy rang it up and didnt apply an employee discount.

I know the owner of the store, actually all of you do, wont say his name but trust me. He cant spend all the money he has in 2 lifetimes but wont give an employee working for $8 an hour a break on a candy bar.

So I made a comment and this young worker said "well yes, but better dead than red"



I wanted to ask him if he thought those were the choices, what we have now or communism, but I didnt.