Air Canada Is Charging For Wi-Fi On Their Planes

[Mar]

This might be old news but I flew to Ottawa last month and Air Canada now has Wi-Fi on their planes. That's great but they tried to charge people $18 each way to be able to connect to it in flight. They can charge whatever they want to but is it actually legal to charge for Wi-Fi? I thought all businesses went free with this because some court decided it wasn't legal to charge people for access to a wireless frequency inside the public band. That's why all Starbucks, airports and hotels went free at the same time, the alternative was jail. Is this true?

[Kobe]

uggggggh most places other than YYC charge for wi-fi usually give your 30minutes free and charge..

Remember when I flew with virgin? I had to pay for it as well.. $18 is not bad at all either IMO...

Edit: I thought Starbucks and Mcdonalds were always free and they marketed it as free wi-fi to bring in customers..

Edit 2: I just realized Mar wrote this post... :rofl: :rofl: No wonder it's such a stupid fucken question...

[rage2]

Uhh no. Wifi is only free s a courtesy to customers.

I love AC wifi. 4 hour flights feels like 30 mins.

[roopi]

You've never stayed in a hotel before? It's rarely free.

[Tik-Tok]

Jesus Mar, you are the best low key troll ever. At least I hope you are.

[Isaiah]

You guys don't realize when you're being Marred?

[BigShow]

As long as they have it, I'll pay whatever and expense it.

[Maxx Mazda]

You're sitting in a chair. In the sky. And the wifi is too expensive. You entitled little shit...

[J.M.]

:rofl: :rofl:

[schocker]

Gees, that is like $18 for a round trip!!







:rofl:

[rage2]

Originally posted by Isaiah
You guys don't realize when you're being Marred?
I recently participated in a non Mar air canada FB thread about not sitting together when the person didn't pay $10 for advanced seat selection, so this one at least deserved a reply. :rofl:

[Xtrema]

wow, just wow.:facepalm:

[NoSup4U]

Originally posted by Mar
This might be old news but I flew to Ottawa last month and Air Canada now has Wi-Fi on their planes. That's great but they tried to charge people $18 each way to be able to connect to it in flight. They can charge whatever they want to but is it actually legal to charge for Wi-Fi? I thought all businesses went free with this because some court decided it wasn't legal to charge people for access to a wireless frequency inside the public band. That's why all Starbucks, airports and hotels went free at the same time, the alternative was jail. Is this true?


8 flights with AC in the last two months and no charges?!?! WTF are you guys doing wrong?

And no, you did not pay $18 "each way", so 100% bull shit on Mar as per usual post.

Costs are $9.95...so $18 return trip( and this ma only be international?), if you really can't go without internet for the 4.5 hour flight, than maybe you need to take a long, hard look at yourself?

AC inflight WiFi with entertainment is free.....more than enough within Canada/ US....but if you need to be online, the $5-$10 every airline on this planet charges for WiFi is pretty reasonable for what you get???

EDIT: Just realized I've apparently been Mar'd

:dunno: :dunno::english:

[rage2]

It's $18 for a day pass, $65 for a month pass, or $5 an hour. It wasn't even free in business class. :(

[botox]

Just curious but how is the internet speed on planes? I've been tempted to try it out but usually end up sleeping through the flight.

[NoSup4U]

Originally posted by rage2
It's $18 for a day pass, $65 for a month pass, or $5 an hour. It wasn't even free in business class. :(

Have only ever been charged in China (Star Alliance) , and it was $9.95, same price I was just quoted from AC (maybe outdated??).

Regardless I've been Mar'd....illegal to charge for WiFi?!?! I'm going to bed

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by botox
Just curious but how is the internet speed on planes? I've been tempted to try it out but usually end up sleeping through the flight.

Sounds like its only ATG so far, so 10Mbps per plane at best but probably feels like whole plane sharing a 3G wifi hot spot.

2KU will bring 70Mbps but I would assume that will be more expensive and reserved for flights over ocean.

[gwill]

Edit 2: I just realized Mar wrote this post... :rofl: :rofl: No wonder it's such a stupid fucken question... [/B]

this made me piss my pants

[revelations]

Originally posted by Maxx Mazda
You're sitting in a chair. In the sky. And the wifi is too expensive. You entitled little shit...

haha, totally reminded of that scene

[JDMMAN]

$18 for a day pass is very reasonable. Emirates was charging by the MB for flights or a flat charge of $30US up to 50MB on a flight segment; but it was so spotty at times while flying over the Atlantic.

rage2 - how was the connectivity & speed? Did it die out in some spots for the AC flights?

[Kijho]

It was like $18 for 2 hours of wifi in the hotel in Vegas :dunno: Just added 1gig on my phone data instead for only $5.

[killramos]

Originally posted by Kijho
It was like $18 for 2 hours of wifi in the hotel in Vegas :dunno: Just added 1gig on my phone data instead for only $5.

You must stay in shit hotels :rofl:

I remember 4 or 5 yars ago i tried it when Air Alaska was trialing it. At the time it was free. Fuck it was slow and useless hahaha, could barely use Beyond and it was pretty light.

Still 18 dollars for a whole flight of entertainment is pretty valuable, esp on a 3+ hour flight. Considering they charge nearly that much for a sandwich assembled by a chimpanzee this is far from the biggest rippoff present in airline travel.

[jwslam]

Originally posted by killramos
I remember 4 or 5 yars ago i tried it when Air Alaska was trialing it. At the time it was free. Fuck it was slow and useless hahaha, could barely use Beyond and it was pretty light.
Let's put you back on that connection to limit your post-whoring. :clap:

[rage2]

It's really fast on AirCanada but that's because it blocks tons of media sites, from youtube to photobucket. Basically anything that can host video is blocked. Browsing the web was no different than browsing on LTE in terms of experience. I've uploaded hundreds of photos to the blog and published articles while I was in the air. United was same experience although I don't remember the video performance.

Oddly enough, Facetime isn't blocked, and I was able to make a facetime call with good audio, and video at like 5fps.

[killramos]

Originally posted by jwslam

Let's put you back on that connection to limit your post-whoring. :clap:

I'm not even on the top 10 this week :rolleyes:

http://boardreader.com/site/Beyond_ca_Car_Forums_Automotiv_14781.html

You know, the list you are frequently on. :rofl:

[jwslam]

Originally posted by killramos
You know, the list you are frequently on. :rofl:
Zero denial of being guilty of the same thing.

[killramos]

Originally posted by jwslam

Zero denial of being guilty of the same thing.

:D

[Strider]

Originally posted by killramos
You must stay in shit hotels :rofl:

:dunno: I always find the more expensive the hotel, the more expensive the wifi.

[killramos]

Originally posted by Strider


:dunno: I always find the more expensive the hotel, the more expensive the wifi.

I have always managed to have my wifi in Vegas comped. and i don't even ball hard when I'm there.

:dunno:

[Disoblige]

Mar is one of those guys in person where they say a bunch of things that start with "But I thought..." and just annoys the fuck out of everyone.

[max_boost]

I'll gladly pay for that wifi.

[OTown]

Is OP for real? :rofl:

[Hallowed_point]

I hear you Mar. Fucking McDonald's charged me for fries when I'd already paid for a cheeseburger yesterday. They have to bounce back from tough times somehow I guess :thumbsdow

[rx7boi]

C'mon you guys...don't whip the donkey too hard or it will run away and not come back!

[Feruk]

Originally posted by roopi
You've never stayed in a hotel before? It's rarely free.
Have you?? I spent the last month pretty much hotel/hostel/rental apartment hopping. Never once did I pay for WIFI...

[jonsey737]

Wifi is available on 5 WestJet aircraft as well now. Anyone get a chance to use it yet? Any comments? It's all 737-800 aircraft that didn't have the LiveTV that are being upgraded first now that it's all approved.

[jonsey737]

Originally posted by Feruk

Have you?? I spent the last month pretty much hotel/hostel/rental apartment hopping. Never once did I pay for WIFI...

It depends on what hotels you stay in my experience. The higher end ones are usually the ones that charge for internet. It's free at the Holiday Inn Express but maybe not a Hilton (although some still offer free wifi).

[n1zm0]

Originally posted by Maxx Mazda
You're sitting in a chair. In the sky. And the wifi is too expensive. You entitled little shit...

I got that reference :D

ZFsOUbZ0Lr0

[pheoxs]

Just as a heads up you can get free wifi using a workaround. I don't remember off hand the exact steps but if you look on reddit or google it, itll show up. It's the same as the US flights.

Basically when you connect to the wifi and select a movie, it'll take you to the app store to download video player. If you stop things at the right point you'll be connected to the internet (not just the app store) so you can browse and do whatever for ~10 minutes before it kills the connection.

[rage2]

I don't think that applies to AC. Their gogo wifi is just that, wifi. There is no movie/entertainment selection on board.

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by jonsey737
Wifi is available on 5 WestJet aircraft as well now. Anyone get a chance to use it yet? Any comments? It's all 737-800 aircraft that didn't have the LiveTV that are being upgraded first now that it's all approved.

I think that's wifi entertainment not internet. Basically replacing all the Bell Sat TV and screens.

[killramos]

Originally posted by Xtrema


I think that's wifi entertainment not internet. Basically replacing all the Bell Sat TV and screens.

Pretty sure i read a news article today from west jet saying that they are in the process of adding in flight wifi to all their 767ER's and the price is 8 per flight.

Maybe i read that wrong though.

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by killramos


Pretty sure i read a news article today from west jet saying that they are in the process of adding in flight wifi to all their 767ER's and the price is 8 per flight.

Maybe i read that wrong though.

You are right.


WestJet Connect

WestJet Connect brings the internet and the best in entertainment straight to your laptop, tablet or smartphone while you are in the air. Bring your own device and download the WestJet app before your flight and you'll be ready to go.

Internet connectivity

Ever wonder if email travels faster than a plane? Now you can find out with our on-board internet access. Purchase a Flight Pass for $7.99-9.19 (Flight Passes are good for a single flight).

The flight I was on, there was none available. Only entertainment preloaded on tablet for rent.

[Mar]

I really didn't think it was legal for Canadian companies to charge for access to frequencies inside the public band. Good thing I asked a knowledgeable group prior to making a fool of myself.


Originally posted by Disoblige
Mar is one of those guys in person where they say a bunch of things that start with "But I thought..." and just annoys the fuck out of everyone.

You're welcome for all the work I did on your car! :dunno:

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by pheoxs
Just as a heads up you can get free wifi using a workaround. I don't remember off hand the exact steps but if you look on reddit or google it, itll show up. It's the same as the US flights.

Basically when you connect to the wifi and select a movie, it'll take you to the app store to download video player. If you stop things at the right point you'll be connected to the internet (not just the app store) so you can browse and do whatever for ~10 minutes before it kills the connection.
https://www.reddit.com/r/LifeProTips/comments/3bw708/lpt_how_to_get_free_internet_on_us/

[jdmakkord]

Originally posted by Mar
I really didn't think it was legal for Canadian companies to charge for access to frequencies inside the public band. Good thing I asked a knowledgeable group prior to making a fool of myself.



You're welcome for all the work I did on your car! :dunno:

Because making a fooling yourself to a knowledgable group is so much better...:rolleyes:

[dino_martini]

Originally posted by jonsey737
Wifi is available on 5 WestJet aircraft as well now. Anyone get a chance to use it yet? Any comments? It's all 737-800 aircraft that didn't have the LiveTV that are being upgraded first now that it's all approved.

I got to try out WestJet Connect on my flight from Halifax to Calgary today. They give you a 15 minute trial. Seems decent, things like netflix are blocked. My seat mate was watching movies from the WestJet connect system and it didnt seem like they had to buffer or stutter at all. All in all not a bad system on WestJet.

I haven't been on Air Canada in years so I don't know what their WiFi is like.

Delta had awesome wifi, and at the time it was free for BlackBerry customers. They probably aren't doing that promo any more :cry:

[ickyflex]

That explains why the wifi didn't work on my flight :cry:

[Disoblige]

Originally posted by Mar

You're welcome for all the work I did on your car! :dunno:
What do you mean by "all that work"? I asked you to help me with a super simple trunk mod that should have taken an hour tops. I was being courteous in person to you. Back then you seemed to know your stuff about Compustar car remotes and I was doing the exact same mod as you so I thought I'd ask for your help. Who would have thought it turned into a 2 day ordeal and I had to go in there afterwards to fix up the poor splices made originally. In hindsight, I easily could have done it myself and mistakenly asked you for assistance. But hey, I was nice throughout the entire ordeal and you even gained a big case of beer from it.

#2) Oh and don't even get me started on the scratched up seats you delivered to me. I know they're not your seats, but damaging the plastic all around it and downplaying it was pretty lame. I would have easily asked a friend to pick them up for me if I knew that was how you were going to treat them.

#3) Oh and not to mention you were an idiot and killed a spiderling Tarantula I gave you for free because you washed the container with bleach. It would probably still be alive if it was with me.

I always knew who you were, so don't act like I'm just making fun of someone who I never met before. You're nice in person (as you are on here), but anyone here who wonders if Mar really is like this in real life or if he's trolling, I'm here to tell you yes he is like this for real and he isn't trolling. This guy is an idiot.


To everyone, this was a long, long time ago. I think I was still in school even.

[rx7_turbo2]

http://mustsharenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/escalated-quickly.jpg

[max_boost]

Lol damn. What a gem of a post

[flipstah]

Disoblige, you're so hot when you rant.

[killramos]

Originally posted by Mar
I really didn't think it was legal for Canadian companies to charge for access to frequencies inside the public band.

Where do you get this shit from?

[ZenOps]

It isn't illegal to charge as a mom and pop shop, but if it is a big telecom company they are not allowed to use the internet freebands (currently 2.4 and 5 Ghz) for commerical applications.

They have to buy their own spectrum freqency if they wish to go national as a carrier.

Mind you, there is plenty of precedence of commercial use of freeband tower to tower transmissions as backhaul routes. As long as noone complains about interference and they stay under the maximum 4 watt EIRP, I'd assume noone would care.

[aragingbull]

The WestJet connect requires the WestJet app to be installed on your device beforehand. Some ppl didnt have the app and were upset they couldn't access the contents. Just make sure its installed before you get on. I tried it last week and it was good. Watched a movie without any buffering.

[Mar]

Originally posted by Disoblige

What do you mean by "all that work"? I asked you to help me with a super simple trunk mod that should have taken an hour tops. I was being courteous in person to you. Back then you seemed to know your stuff about Compustar car remotes and I was doing the exact same mod as you so I thought I'd ask for your help. Who would have thought it turned into a 2 day ordeal and I had to go in there afterwards to fix up the poor splices made originally. In hindsight, I easily could have done it myself and mistakenly asked you for assistance. But hey, I was nice throughout the entire ordeal and you even gained a big case of beer from it.

#2) Oh and don't even get me started on the scratched up seats you delivered to me. I know they're not your seats, but damaging the plastic all around it and downplaying it was pretty lame. I would have easily asked a friend to pick them up for me if I knew that was how you were going to treat them.

#3) Oh and not to mention you were an idiot and killed a spiderling Tarantula I gave you for free because you washed the container with bleach. It would probably still be alive if it was with me.

I always knew who you were, so don't act like I'm just making fun of someone who I never met before. You're nice in person (as you are on here), but anyone here who wonders if Mar really is like this in real life or if he's trolling, I'm here to tell you yes he is like this for real and he isn't trolling. This guy is an idiot.


To everyone, this was a long, long time ago. I think I was still in school even.

Wow, you are really angry. I made a funny comment to you and you go off the hinges with personal attacks, is this common with you? I need to clear up some facts here:

1. There wasn't any splicing involved in he trunk popper install (that I did for free). I'm not sure which wires you fixed because this required only to hook wires to a relay and then plug one wire into the alarm brain. You got it mixed up with something else.

2. It wasn't a super simple job, or maybe anyone else would have known that the Civic requires a negative pulse trigger on the trunk output rather than a positive trigger. Or apparently anyone besides a London Drugs cashier.

3. You're welcome for the free seat delivery? :dunno: I really wasn't aware that the 2 huge seats I had to cram into my Civic coupe could have been arranged in a better way for transport 300 kilometres. I could have maybe rented you a truck?

4. I don't think I cleaned out that tank with bleach, though it was pretty long ago. It either died from dehydration or malnutrition, it was a learning experience and my new spiders are doing just fine. I have a Green Bottle Blue and a P. Metallica just loving life.

I know you're young and angry at the world but maybe we can hug it out? I didn't mean to offer you sub-standard free time and materials that would cause 5 years of repressed rage, I swear.


Originally posted by killramos


Where do you get this shit from?

From reality. I knew there was something about it, and it turns out I was right, I just didn't realize it was specifically focused towards the level of industry. ZenOps is never wrong. He created Beyond in 6 days and on the 7th he turned water into nickel. Reference:


Originally posted by ZenOps
It isn't illegal to charge as a mom and pop shop, but if it is a big telecom company they are not allowed to use the internet freebands (currently 2.4 and 5 Ghz) for commerical applications.

They have to buy their own spectrum freqency if they wish to go national as a carrier.

Mind you, there is plenty of precedence of commercial use of freeband tower to tower transmissions as backhaul routes. As long as noone complains about interference and they stay under the maximum 4 watt EIRP, I'd assume noone would care.

[Disoblige]

Originally posted by Mar

Wow, you are really angry. I made a funny comment to you and you go off the hinges with personal attacks, is this common with you? I need to clear up some facts here:

1. There wasn't any splicing involved in he trunk popper install (that I did for free). I'm not sure which wires you fixed because this required only to hook wires to a relay and then plug one wire into the alarm brain. You got it mixed up with something else.

2. It wasn't a super simple job, or maybe anyone else would have known that the Civic requires a negative pulse trigger on the trunk output rather than a positive trigger. Or apparently anyone besides a London Drugs cashier.

3. You're welcome for the free seat delivery? :dunno: I really wasn't aware that the 2 huge seats I had to cram into my Civic coupe could have been arranged in a better way for transport 300 kilometres. I could have maybe rented you a truck?

4. I don't think I cleaned out that tank with bleach, though it was pretty long ago. It either died from dehydration or malnutrition, it was a learning experience and my new spiders are doing just fine. I have a Green Bottle Blue and a P. Metallica just loving life.

I know you're young and angry at the world but maybe we can hug it out? I didn't mean to offer you sub-standard free time and materials that would cause 5 years of repressed rage, I swear.


Yeah, I'm so angry, which is why I simply took the high road in person so I would never deal with an idiot like you ever again :rofl: :rolleyes:

1) Exactly, no splicing required, yet you did splice some wires unnecessarily and I cleaned it all up. Again, my poor judgement back then as I didn't know what you were really like until you showed your true colors later. I thought I would ask someone from the same car club as it was easier, but boy was I out to lunch for sure.

2) In hindsight, it was pretty simple and I could do it myself in an hour or less (after going online and looking at a couple tutorials and the manual). On a separate note your blind assumptions make yourself look silly. You don't know what I do for a job or my background.

3) I was going to pick them up with a friend, then you said you were going to Edmonton anyways and could pick them up for me. We agreed that in exchange for this, you would take both my mint stock seats. So we exchanged seats, except mine was scratched as hell. You could have put them in better so they wouldn't have scratched. You just didn't care.

4) Uhh, you told me that in person and via text. Great memory, even you second guessed yourself in your own post ("I don't think ... though it was pretty long ago") :rofl:


Way to go trying to "clear things up". It's not personal at all, I'm totally over it. It's just pretty funny how bad your memory is. I'm the one who's clearing things up because you seem so delusional about everything as usual, and it's so funny you're showing this side of you yet again in all the examples. I feel bad for you man, you didn't change one bit.

[Mar]

Originally posted by Disoblige

Yeah, I'm so angry, which is why I simply took the high road in person so I would never deal with an idiot like you ever again :rofl: :rolleyes:

1) Exactly, no splicing required, yet you did splice some wires unnecessarily and I cleaned it all up. Again, my poor judgement back then as I didn't know what you were really like until you showed your true colors later. I thought I would ask someone from the same car club as it was easier, but boy was I out to lunch for sure.

2) In hindsight, it was pretty simple and I could do it myself in an hour or less (after going online and looking at a couple tutorials and the manual). On a separate note your blind assumptions make yourself look silly. You don't know what I do for a job or my background.

3) I was going to pick them up with a friend, then you said you were going to Edmonton anyways and could pick them up for me. We agreed that in exchange for this, you would take both my mint stock seats. So we exchanged seats, except mine was scratched as hell. You could have put them in better so they wouldn't have scratched. You just didn't care.

4) Uhh, you told me that in person and via text. Great memory, even you second guessed yourself in your own post ("I don't think ... though it was pretty long ago") :rofl:


Way to go trying to "clear things up". It's not personal at all, I'm totally over it. It's just pretty funny how bad your memory is. I'm the one who's clearing things up because you seem so delusional about everything as usual, and it's so funny you're showing this side of you yet again in all the examples. I feel bad for you man, you didn't change one bit.

Are we still doing this? I thought we hugged it out already.


Originally posted by Disoblige
You don't know what I do for a job or my background.


Did you build a time machine and go back in time to prove me wrong?

[rx7boi]

:rofl: Mar, enterrtainment as usual.

[thetransporter]

when I think about it, think of all the work had to be done to pick up medium latency data from towers pointed towards the ski (from what i read a airplane internet company, Gogo had to install towers around north america with their beam focusing towards airplanes)

so really paying a small fee for high quality internet up there isnt a big deal to me......

I did use a Verizon inflight data around 2005 it was free and worked great but I believe there was limited bandwidth

[cam_wmh]

Originally posted by JDMMAN
$18 for a day pass is very reasonable. Emirates was charging by the MB for flights or a flat charge of $30US up to 50MB on a flight segment; but it was so spotty at times while flying over the Atlantic.

rage2 - how was the connectivity & speed? Did it die out in some spots for the AC flights?

Those trans-atlantic/pacific flights, are utilizing Satellite, which is considerably pricier than the telecom derived service.

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by cam_wmh


Those trans-atlantic/pacific flights, are utilizing Satellite, which is considerably pricier than the telecom derived service.

Thats how all flights have wifi.