[PhilipHart]

Perhaps this will be familiar to rferguson and handbag 🙂

[FDOS_UK]

[quote quote=870046]Perhaps this will be familiar to rferguson and handbag 🙂

Quite a lot of BA aircraft don’t yet have wifi, so RF and handbag might not find this complaint as familiar as one might think 🙂

As for the complaint, well Jetblue do advertise that With Fly-Fi®, the things you do daily on your computer, tablet or smartphone can be done in the air – and with impressive speed!

Maybe it would be better for the airline to set realistic expectations, rather than imply customers are wrong when pointing out that the advertised service description is not delivered? After all, it is a free service, so why big it up?

Having once done JFK to SFO on a Jetblue A320 in a standard Y seat (6 hours 45 minutes) I felt like complaining about EVERYTHING by the time we got there, never again (this being before they had a transcon seat).

[handbag]

Most of BA aircraft don’t have Wi-fi. I think BA pax and Crew would think they were lucky, if they had it 🙂

It is being rolled out slowlyyyyy.

A young lady on my last flight told me she couldn’t get logged onto wifi. I apologised and said the aircraft didn’t have it and it was gradually being installed on aircraft. She looked incredulous and said it was ridiculous they didn’t put it in when the planes were built. I couldn’t help but smile when I said, I don’t think that internet was invented when this plan was built.

[rferguson]

LOL. Our friends across the pond have an absolute fixation with wifi. It’s incredible. Any route other than London to the US you might get one or two enquiries if WIFI is available and if you reply ‘no’ it’s no big deal. On american routes it’s probably the most common question on boarding. And the reaction of some customers when we advise them it’s not available is really quite something. I know it’s almost a given that US carriers aircraft will be wifi enabled but surely you’d do your homework and find out if an airline offer fleet wide wifi if it is THAT important?

BA currently has wifi installed on 22 long haul aircraft, and switched on and operational on 19 of those –
747-400 CIVR, CIVS, CIVV, CIVW, CIVY, CIVY, BYGC, BYGD.
777-300 STBB, STBD, STBE, STBL.
777-200 VIIC, VIIG, VIIH, VIIS, VIIY, YMMD, YMME.

If you happen to be travelling on one of the wifi enabled aircraft you get an hour free in a deal sponsored by Visa. You need to register which is a pretty lengthy process. BUT….at the end of the hour you can simply log out and re-register with different details. It doesn’t seem to recognise the device you are using so you can theoretically get free wifi for the entire flight if you have the patience to go through the registration process umpteen times 😉

[LuganoPirate]

[quote quote=870081]I couldn’t help but smile when I said, I don’t think that internet was invented when this plan was built.[/quote]

😉 😉 😉

[capetonianm]

Last month I spent 18 days on a ship. Not only was the WiFi very slow and unreliable, it was also very expensive, at about US$0.35/minute. I make that point because it was charged per minute, not by data consumed.

I am on a short sea crossing now, but the wifi is free.

[FDOS_UK]

[quote quote=870081]She looked incredulous and said it was ridiculous they didn’t put it in when the planes were built. I couldn’t help but smile when I said, I don’t think that internet was invented when this plan was built.[/quote]

Just for your interest, some key milestones in the development of the internet

– The internet has developed over a long persiod, but the first message was sent in 1969 on the ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network)
– in 1982 the TCP/IP communication protocol was introduce to ARPANET and this is one interpretation of when the internet really started
– in 1989 Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web and this was released to the publ;ic in 1991

So it’s been around a little longer than most people realise – I remember getting my first email account in 1994 the address was something like 76098,[email protected] – not exactly user friendly – the web browsers were in their infancy and I remember using Ask Jeeves, in the days before Google

http://web.archive.org/web/20010712233646/http://www.ask.com/

Things have moved on a bit since then.

[PhilipHart]

FDOS_UK, the topic was “First World Problems”, of which this was a particular instance.

It was not specifically about Wifi, but rather an invitation to rferguson/handbag to regale us with similar tales from their own experiences – which they have very kindly done.

[FDOS_UK]

[quote quote=870099]FDOS_UK, the topic was “First World Problems”, of which this was a particular instance.

It was not specifically about Wifi, but rather an invitation to rferguson/handbag to regale us with similar tales from their own experiences – which they have very kindly done.[/quote]

Well you must be reading a different thread to me, because you posted a Jetblue log recording a wifi complaint, which RF and handbag, with good grace as ever, have responded to by discussing wifi related matters.

Have a nice day.

[FDOS_UK]

[quote quote=870092]Last month I spent 18 days on a ship. Not only was the WiFi very slow and unreliable, it was also very expensive, at about US$0.35/minute.

I make that point because it was charged per minute, not by data consumed.[/quote]

Just like Compuserve and AOL when they were dial up services.

[TiredOldHack2]

[quote quote=870081]I said, I don’t think that internet was invented when this plane was built.[/quote]

Oh, I love that.

[MartynSinclair]

Out of curiosity, why is wifi (or at least the wiring/equipment) not built in the newer aircraft as standard? Surely a retrofit is more complicated, time-consuming and costly..

[FDOS_UK]

[quote quote=870108]Out of curiosity, why is wifi (or at least the wiring/equipment) not built in the newer aircraft as standard? Surely a retrofit is more complicated, time-consuming and costly..[/quote]

FWIW, I had a conversation with an engineer onboard a large airline whose fleet have wifi and he said that Boeing don’t offer it as an option, so it has to be installed post delivery, sometimes leading to a delay if the fitting company are busy.

[GivingupBA]

Thanks for the Internet history notes, FDOS_UK, that’s interesting. I also remember my first email efforts, I think it was 1996, it was complicated and cumbersome. The Internet was of course a very different place 22 years ago.

[FDOS_UK]

Just out of interest, is it okay to post an image of an internal airline document on a public forum, like this one?

[Author]

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