GoGo Rocks, And So Does Their Customer Service
Most normal people dread getting on a plane for a long flight. There’s the cramped quarters, lack of legroom, bad or non-existent food. While I hate to be away from my family, getting on an airplane has always been productive time for me.
Before there was in-flight internet, it was a great time for me to plow through my inbox, slashing and burning while squeezing out dozens of messages.
When Gogo burst onto the scene with in-flight wifi in a big way, I was thrilled that my primary carrier, American Airlines, was a big supporter. I started looking forward to being connected in the air so I didn’t have a deluge of e-mails that needed responses when I landed. Fast forward to today and if you’re flying in the US (and you’re not on United), you’re almost certainly connected.
I’ve had a monthly pass from Gogo for years, and it’s served me very well. It’s a reasonable price and the service is reliable. Some folks might be disappointed that they can’t stream 3 movies at once while talking to a friend on FaceTime. I need e-mail and web browsing, and Gogo handles both like a champ.
I had a chance to interact with their customer service recently for the first time I can recall in many years, and loved it! The credit card associated with my monthly pass had expired, thus so had my account. I was already up in the air when I figured this out, so I hopped on Gogo’s live chat feature.
They instructed me to go ahead and re-subscribe to the monthly plan. They offered to put a discount on my account for this month to bring me back down to the price I had locked in years ago and then would manually adjust my price going forward to match it as well. They also offered a discount for “my inconvenience.”
Keep in mind, they didn’t do anything wrong. My credit card expired. I certainly wasn’t offended that they didn’t want to continue giving me internet if I wasn’t going to pay them.
It may sound like a small thing, but contrast that service to the product United is offering on a bunch of planes in the US. Not only has it been unreliable for me, but they’re talking about rolling out such innovations as being able to store your credit card so you don’t have to enter it every time you buy a new session.
I’m a big fan of in-flight WiFi and an even bigger fan of great customer service. Gogo has both!
I have a monthly pass, too, but find the connection to be very slow and somewhat unstable, even with email downloads.
Phil, what airline do you fly most regularly? I have the occasional slowness, but e-mail is something I can’t really ever recall having a problem with.
I had the monthly plan….and loved it…..until they raised the cost. Even though I do not fly as much as you, at 4-5 flights a month it was quite reasonable …more so than buying individual sessions. Now, I usually just pay for the mobile access….and can at least stay connected.
Susan, the mobile access is pretty reasonably priced. I’d still get enough value at the higher prices but I’m happy to be at the lower prices for now.