

Singapore Airlines Billed Me $1200 for the Internet - dsr12
http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/singapore-airlines-billed-me-1200-for-the-internet

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steven2012
This article is bullshit.

I recently used Singapore Airlines to fly to Asia and I used their internet
service. It was very clear what the charges were, $10 for 10 MB of internet
access, and $0.15 per 100 KB overage. I even took a picture of it because I
was shocked at how expensive it was, but it was very clear what the price was.

The author apparently didn't care to read the very clear instructions, and
didn't monitor his usage, which the connection also provided. If he was
charged $1200, that's more than 500MB of data usage, so he clearly was doing a
lot more than uploading a 4MB file and 155 page views.

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incision
While I certainly question a system that allows a person to run up such a
steep tab in the first place, this story smells.

 _> "So what does it take to rack up $1200 of internet use? In my case, just
155 page views, mostly to my email."_

Looking at SA per MB pricing [1] you'd need to pull down just shy of 1.2GB to
be charged that much - 7.5MB per "page view". Personally, my Gmail and Outlook
Inbox are a few hundred K each.

So maybe the author just doesn't know what he's talking about? according to
his bio [2]...

 _> "Today, I design and code Trend Hunter until 4am because I like it."_

It would seem likely that statement is an exaggeration, the one about the
number of page views is disingenuous or both.

Either way, the author loses credibility.

In any case, the author is apparently the globe trotting, baja racing, "rule
breaking", former banker son of a VC [2] - he can surely afford to pay for -
at best - failing to pay attention to the terms.

1:
[http://www.singaporeair.com/jsp/cms/en_UK/flying_with_us/inf...](http://www.singaporeair.com/jsp/cms/en_UK/flying_with_us/inflight-
connectivity.jsp)

2: [http://www.trendhunter.com/Jeremy](http://www.trendhunter.com/Jeremy)

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benjohnson
If it was an over the water flight - it most likely was using using a
satellite connection.

Those are always expensive and Singapore Airlines is passing the costs onward.

For example an Iridium phone is about $.75 for 9600 baud per minute, and
Inmarsat BGAN is $450 for 100 MB.

There are other satellite services, but in the general aviation field that I
know, Iridium and BGAN are the two biggies.

------
robgibbons
"the pricing per mb was disclosed on sign-up"

~~~
eli
Even so, are users expected to count bytes on their own? Is a $1000 bill
considered typical? If not, how about a little popup alert when you blow
through the included bytes. Maybe an Are you sure? prompt somewhere around
$100?

~~~
steven2012
Yes, Singapore Airlines gives you the ability to monitor your usage, as well
as stop once you hit your prepaid limit.

