How A Singapore AIrlines Passenger Spent $1,200 On Wifi

Be careful the next time you purchase Wifi on board your flight, as one Singapore Airlines passenger learned the hard way when he was stuck with a shocking bill for $1,200!

He had purchased a Wifi package for ~$30, and during the course of his flight had just 155 page views, and also uploaded a 4MB PowerPoint file which took over an hour due to the slow connection speed. Here’s a copy of his bill:

There is scarce detail about the source of the additional overage charges, but Singapore Airlines has said that they charge based on both volume of usage and time. That is a bit different than what I see on US airlines which sell packages that are time-based (e.g. 1 hour, 12 hours, unlimited) with some caps on the usage.

This reminds me of a story about a teenager who incurred over $20,000 in roaming charges while using his cell phone overseas. Once stories like these hit the media, the provider almost always does the right thing and will eat the cost rather than risk the ensuing PR nightmare.

To better protect passengers, I think it should be required to warn them about any overage charges prior to them being incurred, and would also be helpful if there was a pop-up box with your running total for the session. Either way, it’s a good reminder nonetheless to read the fine print when using Wifi on-board your next flight!