The nice thing about flying Delta is, most times, you are always going to have Gogo service and it will work. Also, equally true is, most times, it will be painfully slow or so “SloGo” to the point of sometimes being utterly useless. That is changing, somewhat, on Delta jets with the new satellite based wifi that is a bit faster than the ground based system now in place. Either way, slow or fast-ish, it is nice not to have to pay too much for the service and especially so for the old slow one. So how do we save money on Gogo?
Right now, as you can see from THIS LINK and the screen shot above Gogo and Delta are having a promotion with a BOGO free that is buy one get one free pass for global use. Clearly this is targeted toward those who fly internationally when the prices for those passes are much higher than the land based, but if you want I see no restrictions using them either way (again savings comes for international use). The key is buying them in advance before you are up in the air and that is true for many things Gogo as you will see with other offers.
This next one I hope will be short lived but for now you can get 15 minutes free use due to a tech issue where Delta.com and the Fly Delta App, both that are free on Gogo on Delta jets, is not working correctly. Just reach out to customer service and ask for a pass to be able to access Delta. I would even try to ask for two codes so you don’t have to bug them again before you get whatever it is done you are needing to do on Delta.com!
Another one of the absolute best deals period is the $8 mobile pass good for 24 hours of continuous use flight after Delta flight inside that time period. You can pre-buy a bunch of these if you would like. I have used these a ton in the past and you can, if you have an Android phone, use USB or Blue Tooth to share the one paid connection with many devices. That is real savings in the air.
The next two need some explaining and tie in with the $8 pass above as well. I have no less than 3 Gogo accounts and I use them all. The reason for the many accounts is that you can dump different passes into the different accounts and use them when it is the best deal for you (i.e. different login names). Now if you don’t want to have many e-mail accounts, and you use GMAIL as your e-mail provider, you have a very simple workaround. Say your name is BOBSMITH and you use BOBSMITH@GMAIL.COM as your e-mail. So you use that for your 1st Gogo login. Your second one you can use BOB.SMITH@GMAIL.COM (notice the dot). Gogo will see this as a different login name but you will get notifications etc. all to the same GMAIL account. That way you can even have the same password for both Gogo accounts. Simple right?
And that leads us to the next great way to get free Gogo use that is via VISA credit cards that offer free passes each year to card holders. These are often (but not always) per card year NOT per calendar year like many other offers so try to keep that straight in your head if you can. Plus, the 12 month expiration clock tends to start the day you request the passes so it can be wise to wait. But if you are going to cancel or downgrade a VISA card be sure you DO redeem them before you change or cancel that card. Like what cards? My US BANK FlexPerks Signature Visa card comes with free passes as well as my CNB Crystal Visa includes a pack of them. I have a feeling you are going to see more high end Visa Signature cards include them year after year.
Some AMEX cards include these free passes as well. For example the non-Delta AMEX business Platinum card includes free Gogo passes each year and the most amazing part is they are even good on international flights. This perk alone, if you use them, can offset the price for holding the card each year (let alone all the other perks). If you fly Delta internationally and use and have to pay for Gogo this is something you should look at seriously. Like with VISA cards, I expect we will see more free Gogo passes coming to high end AMEX cards.
Then there are other little tweaks and such. Gogo does offer free text service to some plans. They did offer, again with Android, a beta free test that went away with the latest update. But, the OLD version still works. So, save this old version to your phone a.k.a. the APK file, and just then tap and install it over the new one and it will work again. Then, get this, even without paying for a Gogo pass you can use your phone to send a text! I have tested this and it works.
Are there yet more ways to save and not have to pay (or pay less) for Gogo? Yes but be careful with these so they don’t bite you. There are those who sell Gogo passes on eBay but the reliability of eBay is what it is and if they don’t work you may be stuck. The better way is to ask around if anyone has some extra passes they are not going to use i.e. on Twitter or Facebook etc. All someone has to do is e-mail you the code on the back of the pass and you are set once up in the air. Gogo has handed out TONS of these one time free use passes and I bet most of them go unused so ask around and let’s use them! In fact, if you are NOT going to use them let me know and I will make sure RenésPoints readers get use out of them. 😉
So there you are. I have not used a monthly subscription pass for a long time due to all of the above tweaks and discounts. I stopped using the monthly pass partially because Gogo makes it almost impossible to end the monthly billing and often will bill you the next month even when you request they don’t and then you have to fight to get the credit back. Frustrating and I just don’t want to play that game with Gogo anymore. Plus, with all these savings, I just don’t have to anymore! – Rene
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Rene this is a very comprehensive review on everything GoGo! Unfortunately by the time GoGo does finally reach adequate speed (seeing is believing …) not many of us will be flying Delta because we will be forced to the back of the plane where there will be no room to use a PC since the seats are so cramped and close together! OR there will be a ticket upgrade charge when booking if you want to use wifi while flying …
My company’s travel booking system offers me to buy GoGo pass for every round trip I book for $14 a piece. The interesting part is that the passes are valid in any Delta flight domestic or international. I first thought I could only use them in domestic flights but when flying to Europe I logged into my account and it showed all the passes I had available to use in that flight. It worked like a charm.