US Airways sees low level of usage of onboard Wi-Fi

Parker bragged about US Airways but failed to mention the many Flight Attendants standing right outside that Media Day Picketing about Labor Contracts that this company has had 5 years to complete. Save your 35M Mr Parker and pay your flight attendants and GET THAT LABOR CONTRACT DONE! Otherwise this company may not be called US Airways anymore but the new name will be USELESS AIR!

After all these years of the non happening merger, I am amazed at how US is leading the industry in the race to the bottom,regarding services offered.
US employees are rightfully apathetic and show very little true interest in the passenger that happen to buy the cheap ticket to get on the plane.
Traveling folks, you get what you pay for, but at US there is no extra charge got the lousy attitude. It comes with standard with every fare.

I wouldn't mind a small nominal fee, but it's way too expensive to be of value, even on longer flights. On short flights, the price is outrageous if you consider per minute rates. When net access is free in the airport, and I already pay a monthly fee for my home and another monthly fee for my phone, the last thing I want to do is pay $5-13 per flight leg. Especially when you consider that you can't use it at all during taxi, take-off and landing.

Recently flew US Air - was able to use the wifi on my Droid free of charge....

This is like with everything else. We are getting nickel and dimed to death for each "service" provided. It should be standard !!!!! Put everything you got such as internet use and luggage into the price of the ticket and let's GO.

Once again - people are complaining about how expensive things are and how they are being nickeled and dimed, but has anyone really considered the costs of operating an airline or providing services such as wi-fi onboard? Everyone wants lower and cheaper fares, but the rising costs of wages, maintenance, fuel, new technology and equipments all have to be paid for by someone. The airlines are certainly not getting fat from airfares, yet every passenger demands more without willing to pay for the true cost of providing the service. Gas prices at the fuel pump have gone up almost 4x since the 1980s, but a trans-continental US airfare remains in the $300-400 range! Airlines are businesses, they are not entitlement nor public services. Pre-deregulation there were all the niceties in air travel because airfares ACTUALLY covered the cost of carriage and gives airlines a profit margin. This is no longer the situation today and consumers need to wake up and realize that as well. Yes - the price of wi-fi onboard is high, but so is the cost of installation and maintenance. Some airlines are giving it away for free as a trial, but they can only offer free wi-fi for so long.

Bottom line - you get what you paid for. When passengers are willing to pay true market price for air travel is when all the "niceties" that are demanded will return. It's simple economics.

So you want everyone else to subsidize something because you are too cheap? When I go to a coffee shop, I only purchase plain black coffee. I would be pretty upset if I was paying the same as someone who orders a white chocolate mohca frappacinno.

I am a frequent flyer and user of wifi when in the air. I have two major complaints with inflight wifi. First, no power outlets. Business users would be more prone to use the service if they have adequate power. Second, horrible bandwidth shaping. One guy streams and the whole network comes to a screeching halt! Put a small Netequalizer box on the plane guys. Make this a fair use of bandwidth. Afterall, I AM PAYING for it!!!