A passenger who racked up a $1,171.46 (£750) bill for using Singapore Airline’s in-flight wi-fi is calling for others to join his campaign to stop airlines ‘gouging’ customers.
Jeremy Gutsche, who was flying from London to Singapore last week, has written about his experience on his blog Trend Hunter.
He received the bill when he synched his mobile phone after landing at Singapore Changi Airport.
Mr Gutsche said his flight was ‘otherwise enjoyable’ but he was shocked at the cost of his in-flight internet use. He claims he only made 155 page views, mostly to his email.
"I know this because for the first time I counted up my page views to see where all the dollars went," he said in his blog.
He claimed the on board wi-fi connection was so ‘painfully slow’, it took about one hour to upload a 4mb powerpoint document to his work colleagues.
"That doc probably cost me $100 to upload, so I hope my team liked it," he said. "I actually even emailed them a warning that my upload was taking a while. That email probably cost me $10.
"And yes, the pricing per mb was disclosed on sign-up, but I bought the $30 package, slept through most the flight, and really didn’t think I’d end up a thousand bucks past the limit."
He urged other travellers to tweet Singapore Airlines his blog if they wanted to help them ‘stop gouging internet users’.
A spokesman for Singapore Airlines said Mr Gutsche has contacted the airline with his feedback.
"We are following up directly with him on the matter," he said.
