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Update January 2022: The offers described in this post have since expired. See updated Business Platinum card information on this page.
I’m writing this while flying across the Atlantic on my return from England. I don’t have internet access at the moment because my wife does. I know, that was a confusing sentence. Bear with me. I’ll explain, and I’ll get to the point…
Several credit cards offer free Gogo in-flight wifi passes. These include CNB Crystal Visa Infinite, US Bank Altitude Reserve, US Bank Flexperks Signature Visa, and Amex Business Platinum. Did I miss any? Maybe. I don’t currently have internet access, so I can’t check. Anyway, I’m pretty sure of this: The Amex Business Platinum card is the only card with free in-flight wifi passes that can be used on international flights.
My wife has the Business Platinum card. I don’t. And my wife is currently sitting beside me using the internet. I know from experience that two people can’t use the same Gogo account at once. Actually, they can do so if the person with internet sets up their device as a hotspot but I haven’t set one up. So, when traveling together internationally, we usually take turns.
Rather than wait for my turn or to (gasp!) pay for an internet session, I decided to try something different: Frequent Miler Unplugged. What’s on my mind when I don’t have the internet influencing my writing? You’re looking at it.
Free international internet isn’t the only feature unique to the Business Platinum card. Another is its whopping $595 annual fee. It doesn’t have that “feature” yet, but it will kick in by February 2019. That means I have some deciding to do. Should I pick up a Business Platinum card before February to lock in the current $450 annual fee for a year?
If I were to sign up new for the Business Platinum, it would make sense to do so immediately. That way it would be possible to earn $200 in airline fee credits this month, another $200 in 2019, and another $200 in January 2020 before cancelling or downgrading the card. If I thought that I could get a new welcome bonus for the Business Platinum I’d do that for sure, but I’ve had the card before, so I don’t technically qualify. On the other hand, I didn’t technically qualify for new SPG cards when I applied over the summer, but I did get the welcome bonuses on those cards… so who knows.
Another option is for me to upgrade my Business Green card. This card exists in my portfolio only because I downgraded from the Business Platinum card. And the Business Platinum card existed in my portfolio because I had upgraded from the old Business Gold Rewards card thanks to a 50K upgrade offer. My decision to drop down to the Business Green rather than cancel outright was primarily to wait and see if I’d receive an upgrade offer on that card. No upgrade offer has appeared yet. It may be too soon or maybe Amex’s computers know that this particular account has already been through an upgrade/downgrade roller coaster. If I upgrade this card now, I don’t think I’d qualify for $200 in airline fee reimbursements in 2018 since I’ve already earned that amount this year when my Business Green card was Business Platinum. Worse, since I originally applied for the Business Gold Rewards card in June, I would pay a prorated annual fee now and be charged the full “enhanced” $595 annual fee in July. That answers that question: I’m not going to upgrade.
I’m now thinking that the best option is for me to give it a pass altogether. That said, my 19-year-old son has never had the Business Platinum card and this is probably the best time for him to pick one up. I’ll pay his annual fee and help him meet the spend requirements. In exchange, I’ll keep the $600 in airline fee reimbursements and grant myself access to his Gogo passes. He can keep the Membership Rewards points and get upgraded to both Hilton and Marriott/SPG Gold elite status. That will put him in position to status match to other brands as well. He would also get airport lounge access which might come in handy when traveling without his parents. Yep, this is sounding like a good idea. Remind me to put this in motion when I get home.
What about my wife’s Business Platinum account? Should she renew her card for another year? If I recall, her annual fee will come due later this month or in January, so she’ll be able to lock in the old $450 annual fee for another year. Yeah, I think she gets enough value from the card to justify one more year with it. Starting February 2020, though, we’ll need a new international Gogo plan because I really don’t think we’ll be able to justify continuing her account at $595 per year… unless Amex comes up with seriously good benefits beyond those we know about today ($200 in Dell credit doesn’t cut it).
I didn’t intend to write only about the Business Platinum card in this post, but there you go. I don’t know if readers will like this type of post, but I found it helpful! Before writing this post, I had no idea what I’d do about the upcoming Business Platinum fee increase. Now I know: my son will apply ASAP; my wife will renew for another year; and I’ll sit it out. Thanks for your help!
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I’m bookmarking this page for the great info regarding HotSpot/GOGO tips in comments!
Greg, aren’t all your card fees deductible since this credit card blog er, travel blog is a business?
Going to point out that the GL.inet GL-AR750S solves this problem quite well and is handy for a VPN tunnel in a hotel room or sharing a limited number of connections from the hotel. Sure you could get another card, but this costs less.
Buy a travel router.
Oops! My fault, needed to whitelist americanexpress.com on my pi-hole.
Great post. I tried using the Amex Plat referral link (deep within your profile) and it popped up a blank tab. Fix that so that people can reward you for your insight!
Free WiFi is a fabulous feature with the Plat Biz Card.
What’s been annoying for me is that it hasn’t worked on my main air line, United.
They use a different system, and I’ve been told it won’t work.
The GoGo customer service has told me the same, somewhat vaguely, though.
If anyone knows a trick for United, I’d appreciate education; thanks.
I didn’t download their app before I got on the 10hr Flt.. HaHa oops
I just got back from T-moble they TOAD me my plan & sp should be able to tether anywhere T-moble works ??? Not in the EU like many times..
@CaveDweller, I can confirm that (for several years), tethering on T-mobile data has worked in all international destinations I have been in where T-mobile works (incl. Asia, Europe etc). Bear in mind that they only promise 2G speeds internationally, and as a practical matter, in most countries they do connect to 3G/4G but throttle the speeds. But hey, can’t complain – it is free and works great for my purposes (email, Maps, light web browsing, Uber/food ordering).
Thanks.. They claim it does or Maybe my connection isn’t Fast enough so T- moblie won’t let u connect .I got a SkyRoam to use last month in AUS but I didn’t try T-moblie because everything worked . I’ll try T-moblie in May in the EU with my new $800 LT everything does work better and Faster .
Thanks I’m a No Tech person..
CHEERs
The only reason I see to keep the business version when I have the personal one is to use pay with points at a “bonus.”
I’ve never used international gogo and haven’t been on a domestic flight with it in a long time where I couldn’t use T-Mo.
Any benefits I’m missing here that I don’t get with the personal version? Maybe charging taxes at 1.5 points? The Business Blue and Alliant cards killed most of that .
It’s actually quite surprising the didn’t just add $200 more in Uber credits v Dell. I use Uber quite frequently, especially Uber Eats.
I’m searching……
The personal version gets me worldwide evacuation after every heart attack I suffer in the Maldives . Or at least the first.
You can’t use both the personal and business versions to get 4 people into the Centurion lounge.
I’m searching……
What AMEX needs is some more 88 year old cardholders like my dad whose card says “member since 1965” so they can deny his 6 figure jewelry purchase for my stepmom for being out of line with his normal spending pattern Someone who never sought extra benefits or more points.
Smart move AMEX. (The jeweler just let him take the jewelry on his word he’d send a check, but AMEX doesn’t trust him to pay. Seems membership has it’s deficits)
No, I don’t think you’re missing anything.
Do we have a value on the WeWork membership? If someone is already a WeWork member, does Amex pick up the tab now? The OnDemand membership is $45/mo + $50/day when used. The Shared Workspace plan costs $190/mo. For WeWork users, Amex picking up the tab for these could help make the Business Platinum card make sense.
@Kris: The WeWork membership is a benefit coming next year, so we don’t have details about how it will work yet.
There is the 35% points rebate on travel thru the Amex website, although I don’t use them that way.
I believe evacuation is available with all Platinum flavors (not just the personal).
Yes, liked the post! Would also be very interested in updates in your son’s credit card journey!
Thanks. So far, my son’s credit card journey has been slower than I hoped. I thought he would like playing the game, but instead he defers to me to do everything. I’ll post about it soon.
Maybe he doesn’t understand the drift of it yet , Sounds like my case I offered to give 6 flts away 2 took me up on it ..Most others will Never look @ ur tools manual but want MINE for Free..
CHEERs
When I cancelled my business Platinum card, the lady on the phone told me they would regularly offer 50k miles to upgrade to the Platinum (from Gold) as they want people to have this card. I think if you called about the business green they would offer you an upgrade to the Platinum with points. It’s worth a call.
Yes, thanks. I should do that
Great post. I was just wondering myself if I should pull the trigger on getting the business platinum amex card this month before the annual fee is increased. This is helping me lean in the direction of yes.
Thanks!
Can’t use ur VPN on the plane correct ? . I can’t use it on Amazon Prime movie’s.or download more
Yes a VPN will work. You can’t stream videos.
I was able to stream videos via ssh socks proxy to my home.
Greg, android phones can hotspot off WiFi. I know you want to stay with Apple, but just saying….
Well… I had the Moto G6 with me, but didn’t know how to set it up as a hotspot with wifi. Do you have to install an app or does it work out of the box?
Should work out of the box, as long as it’s unlocked. I have a galaxy and a pixel, so I can’t say for sure. I would download the Gogo WiFi app onto your moto or bookmark the Gogo browser on your phone, just in case. I also do this on hotel WiFi to save the hassle of logging in on multiple devices. Definitely would do a dry run on your home WiFi. Good luck.
I tried with my note 5, and it told me I had to disconnect from wifi to enable the hotspot or tether
See my reply to Greg, Sergi – I use it on Note 8 out of the box currently, but I think it might work on Note 5 too with a recent, but not necessarily even the latest, Android version (but don’t hold me to it)
It should not need the Gogo app. And the “unlocked” phone part is true but slightly different from the phone being network-unlocked. Some carriers (looking at you, AT&T) turn off the hotspot feature altogether, whether to share data connection or Wi-Fi, and want to charge you extra $$ to turn that on. This is regardless of whether the phone is unlocked or not but depends on if you had the carrier’s customized Android version on your phone (usually the case if you get the phone from them, even after version updates). I hated it when I paid AT&T full-price for my phone get an unlocked version for my international travels, paid per GB for the data I would use and then they wanted to charge me yet again for the same GB to use it on another device thru hotspot. Needless to say, I didn’t stay with them for long. But I digress – hope the additional clarity on “unlock” helps…
Could not have said it better
Speaking only to Android phones: It used to be that you could only do this by installing a third-party app like Hotspotio, portable hotspot etc but in my view they were often buggy and caused crashes. Most recent Android releases have built it in but it goes by different names and not the most easy to find, but it does work out of the box. Look under settings for “Wi-Fi sharing” (on Samsung and LG), or “bridge” (Huawei and others) or “extender” (Google) etc. The default “mobile hotspot” can only share your data connection, so it will ask you to turn off Wifi first as Sergi mentioned here. But by turning on Wi-Fi sharing it will let you do a “wi-fi to wi-fi” hotspot, so to say.
Even for the older Android versions, my workaround in a bind used to be Bluetooth tethering – leave Wifi on for Gogo, and connect other devices via Bluetooth. Slightly more involved, and not great for streaming but gets you internet access on multiple devices without installing other apps.
If you wanted to share between your own laptop and smartphone, my preferred solution is to connect the PC, and use an app on the PC (I use Connectify – its not free but there are good deals on it from time to time and it works well) and let other devices share the laptop’s Wifi. Since this feature takes up CPU horsepower and battery, laptop being the “hub” works out better on longer flights than the phone.
Thanks BombayMike. My G6 doesn’t seem to have any of the options you mentioned except for sharing via Bluetooth. I have no idea though how then to connect other devices to it. My laptop, though, supports wifi sharing out of the box so that’s probably the best solution for me.
Yes, as I mentioned, making your laptop the “hub” in such a situation, rather than the phone, is preferred (easier to configure and the laptop has more horsepower, more battery etc). The Android solution was only if you didn’t have a laptop (to share your phone’s wifi hotspot connection with your spouse/kids/other devices, for example).
By default, Windows has “internet connection sharing” which usually means sharing some other non-Wifi internet connection (e.g. ethernet or cellular) over Wifi by creating your own hotspot. I know it is technically possible to share your wifi (connecting to some other hotspot) over wifi to other devices but that is dependent on your wifi adapter, drivers etc and involves some setup. If that is already working out of the box for you (truly sharing your laptop Wifi connection to a hotspot with other devices connecting to your laptop via Wifi), more power to you! You are all set.
I use Connectify to achieve this (as I mentioned in my earlier message) only because Wifi-Wifi sharing wasn’t working easily for me, and this cheap software did the trick. If you find that your Wifi sharing does not work as expected on your laptop, shoot me a PM and I can send you details of my Connectify setup. Also, the Bluetooth connection from the laptop to the phone is straightforward one-time setup if you needed to go down that path. So you have 2 options if your WiFi sharing runs into any issues.
Windows computers can do it too.
Good post. Exactly the sort of obsessive mental gymnastics I do when passing time and stuck in my own head. Good to know it isn’t a mental disease, or if it is, someone else has it too.
Thanks!
That’s exactly how I felt after reading the post too :-)…. Birds of a feather and all that…