My Delta Million Miler flight – The planning & start of the run to Japan
My Delta Million Miler flight – TSA at Chicago O’Hare ORD Airport
My Delta Million Miler flight – Delta 777 Delta One Business class review to Japan NRT Narita Airport
My Delta Million Miler flight – Delta Gogo International Satellite Speed Review
My Delta Million Miler flight – 2016 Delta One TUMI Amenity Kit Black and Gray Review
My Delta Million Miler flight – Narita NRT Airport outside observation Deck
My Delta Million Miler flight – IASS Priority Pass Lounge Review NRT Narita Airport
My Delta Million Miler flight – Korean Air Lounge Review NRT Narita Airport
My Delta Million Miler flight – Delta Sky Club NRT Narita Airport near Gate 21
My Delta Million Miler flight – Delta Sky Club NRT Narita Airport near Gate 15
My Delta Million Miler flight – Delta 747 Delta One Business Class review from Japan NRT Narita Airport
My Delta Million Miler flight – Delta Million Miler Gift Choices & My Selection
My Delta Million Miler flight – Final thoughts of reaching one million miles with Delta Air Lines
One of the things I was really looking forward to on this trip to Japan was a chance to give the Gogo satellite wifi a thorough workout. Gogo is bragging up how great their satellite speed really is and, as you can see from one test coming back to the US it was not bad at all.
But there were a bunch of issues that I think most who have made this flight know all about. Like what? Dead spots, slow spots and bursts of speed now and then. But I am getting ahead of myself.
First off I can report what we already know, that is, if you are flying Delta internationally Gogo is expensive. Really expensive for a one flight use. This means holding the non-Delta AMEX business Platinum card that comes with 10 yearly Gogo passes that do work on international as well as domestic flights is a tremendous value. If you only used them on international flights you are talking up to $280 retail.
Notice the pass says it is good for 24 hours of use. Well, I am guessing due to the date time change that it was not really for 24 hours. Both to and from Japan I had issues when I switched devices it said I had to buy or use a new pass. Now I probably could have griped to Gogo in air support and got a free code for the last hour of flight each way but it is frustrating that the tech did not work as it should. This is one of the major reasons I just use Connectify on my laptop and then can be online with both my phone and laptop on the one connection. Simple, quick done and no risk of Gogo tech problems.
But I mentioned there were issues. Really there were lots of them and I sure hope this is not what we can come to expect from the new whiz bang Gogo on the way over the next few years. Our route to Japan took us up over Alaska while our route back took us mostly over the ocean and hit the US near Seattle. This yielded VASTLY different results.
The route to Japan we went north over Alaska. The wifi started out sorta OK and then got worse and worse. There were any number of times it was just gone. It got so frustrating I gave up and watched movies for a while and then checked back only to enjoy moments of connection then nothing again. If this is the pattern for the new Gogo satellite wifi we are going to be complaining more than we did with the ground based system.
But then there was the trip back from Japan. This was better. You can see by the speed test at the top of the post that download speeds were not that bad and way better than I normally ever get from the ground based Gogo. But again there were times where I had no connection. I also, again, had the issue of Gogo wanting me to buy a pass again once I shut down my computer and used my phone.
Overall I would say, when it was working, the Gogo satellite connection is better. Once we hit the US coast it was pretty much solid and I have no idea if it was using ground and satellite but the bottom line was the connection was good from that point on.
What has been your experience with Delta international Gogo satellite wifi? Did you run into the same issue I had or was your connection better or worse than mine? I would love to know! – René
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I’ve bought the flight pass for the 14 1/2 hours from JFK and ATL to NRT. It normally gives me coverage for about 85-90% of the flight, except for the bits by Alaska and Russia. Otherwise, it’s generally fast enough for e-mail, Facebook and some photo uploading. That’s mostly because the seats on the 747 and 777 in economy, outside of comfort-plus, don’t have power ports and there are few laptops that can last 14-plus hours connected to wireless internet only on battery power. I do, however, wish it was complimentary or reduced in price for business-class customers who sometimes pay $10,000 for JFK-NRT (and onwards).
Used these “BOGOF for $28” good for 24hr vouchers on 2 different trips to SIN and back. They lasted 24hours each time. One was MSP-DTW-JFK-NRT-SIN, which worked out to just over 24 hours. I did also find a several times (for perhaps 2 to 10 mins max) had the no coverage like shown. Also one of these returns was SIN-NRT-SEA-SFO and didn’t really see a difference between the routes. But clearly its very much YMMV.
I flew back from Madrid to Atlanta yesterday. It is the 3rd or 4th time this year to and from Europe. I use their Go-Go both going over and returning and while it’s not perfect, I think it is many times better than the US Delta flights and their Go-Go which I use all the time.
I know you were referring to Asia and I have not gone there this year but I do think the European flights I’ve been on are great from a Go-Go perspective