Singapore Airlines Charges $1,171 For Airplane WiFi? - Shocked Passenger

A man says he's recovering from "sticker shock" after being charged $1,171 for using WiFi on his Singapore Airlines flight. Passenger Jeremy Gutsche wrote on his blog that he willingly purchased 30MB of Internet service for $28.99 and knew there were fees for going beyond the limit. He added, though, that he didn't realize it would cost that much. "So what does it take to rack up $1200 of internet use? In my case, just 155 page views, mostly to my email," Gutsche wrote.

He also said he spent an hour uploading a PowerPoint document. "I wish I could blame an addiction to NetFlix or some intellectual documentary that made me $1200 smarter. However, the Singapore Airlines internet was painfully slow, so videos would be impossible," he wrote.

OnAir, the company that supplied the WiFi on Singapore Airlines, said users are fully aware of what they are signing up for. "It's entirely transparent and you have to opt in and say you're prepared to go over the pre-paid limit," company spokesman Charlie Pryor told USA Today Network.

Pryor would not comment on this particular situation, but he said it's the first time the company has received a complaint from a user over a charge.

"To consume several hundred megabytes during one flight takes much more than basic e-mail viewing, for example downloading heavy attachments, cloud access and using Skype," OnAir's spokesperson Aurélie Branchereau-Giles said in a statement.

Source: AITonline