[xiwenc]

KLM, specially on long flights, has a free tier wifi where you can use major instant messaging without charge. If you want to surf the web, it’s pretty cheap. If i recall around 30-40 euro for a 9-10hours flight. Or pay less for an hour.

Was considering to “hack” my way out of the free tier. But paying was just too easy and it’s affordable.

Sorry for boring addition/story.

[dfxm12]

...it’s pretty cheap. If i recall around 30-40 euro for a 9-10hours flight.

I would love to be in a position where I could consider this cheap. FWIW, I pay about €46 per month for Internet service.

[bauruine]

If you pay 1000+ for the flight an additional 40 Euros isn't that bad.

[KMnO4]

That’s how they get you.

The bias is known as “Anchoring Effect”, where your perception of subsequent prices is skewed by the initial high price.

[azinman2]

Except you’re on a literal plane flying through the sky. This isn’t the same as being on the ground with permanent cables attached to your internet connection. Not only is this incredible that you’d get internet at all, it’s totally reasonable for it to cost a lot more!

[bugglebeetle]

Assuming there are 300 people on a flight and half of them purchase this, that would be $4-6000 per trip for internet access. What do you think the actual margins on this access are, especially relative to the other eye watering and obscene surcharges airlines impose?

[aeyes]

Times have changed, with Starlink the cost is going to be a rounding error. Free high speed Wifi will probably be available on long haul flights within the next 3-5 years.

[xiwenc]

With “cheap” i meant it was still affordable. If it was 10x then it would not be affordable. Just like a bottle a water costs more at the airport, internet access costs more on a plane in the sky.

Perhaps i am a bit biased i would expense the bill to the company. A few hours of work definitely pays back the prepaid internet.

As mentioned, a decade or two ago, this was not possible or very limited to the elites. I certainly dont feel or behave like an elite. So it is “affordable” to me

[miyuru]

singapore air has free unlimited wifi. only need a krisflyer account. speed is also decent.

[duronald]

Southwest Airlines offers free IM through iMessage and WhatsApp too. Should be able to tunnel internet traffic through iMessage.

[frankus]

I'm trying to recall the name of the app that does this, but one of the travel-tracking apps uses Apple's push notification system (which the network treats as "messaging") to send e.g. gate changes to subscribing devices through this "messaging only" network.

The APNS payload is a JSON blob that's limited to 4KB, with a few required pieces of information but mostly free-form, so it's definitely in the scope of e.g. a (text-only) blog post split over a few messages.

[nwbort]

Believe you're referring to Flighty