Back in March American Express announced that Platinum (and Centurion) cardholders would get unlimited Boingo internet hot spot access. American Express, of course, is an advertising partner of the blog.
Boingo offers over 700,000 land-based hotspots worldwide, and American Express planned to offer access for up to 4 devices.
The closest approximate of cost from Boingo for such a plan is $60 per month, and the benefit has been slated to start June 1.
Apparently it’s now live.
You’ll be asked to enter your American Express card number to verify eligibility. I entered my Platinum card and then was allowed to register.
If you already have a Boingo wireless internet account, it won’t automatically be cancelled just because you have this new free unlimited service, so you’ll need to handle that separately.
Once you’ve registered they’ll try to get you to download their app (which apparently will automatically search out their hotspots) but I see no reason to do that, I’d rather control the internet I’m connected to myself.
This offer was announced shortly after American Express lost American Airlines and US Airways lounge access. It’s not meant as a direct replacement of course, American Express offered extra fee credits, and they’ve been building their own lounge network.
American Express has of course long both lost and added benefits, US Airways lounge access was originally added when it first became clear that Amex would lose Continental as a partner… and long gone is the domestic companion ticket benefit that saved me quite a bit of money.
(HT: Loyal Reader Tim)
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…however, Delta Skymiles Platinum members are not eligible.
Any clue if this works for Boingo access with GoGo? If I recall you can use a Boingo login to access GoGo.
Gary,is this valid for AU cards holders as well?
Nor do Canadian Amex seem to be.
I also need to know if this works with GoGo. If it does that would be awesome.
@newbie – should be although i haven’t tested it yet
@Curtis I hadn’t heard that it will, look forward to testing and would sure love to save on my Gogo monthly. I think I would have heard about it by now if it was going to work so I’d be surprised.
Per Amol’s post on Hack My Trip, it does not include in-flight WiFi (i.e. GoGo)
“The AXP Plan only provides access to land-based Wi-Fi services and does not include in-flight Wi-Fi.”
http://about.americanexpress.com/news/pr/2014/expanded-benefits-for-platinum-card.aspx
@newbie – AU’s work, I’ve just done it. 🙂
Sweet – this is a big deal for me!
The T&C says does not work for in-flight. Also, when I tried to do it I get “An unexpected error occurred”.
Just got it to work. I think it doesn’t like hyphens in e-mail addresses, so I used a different one.
No love for this UK Amex Platinum card holder. Our annual fees are more than half again higher than the fees assessed for US Amex Platinum card holders, so I’m a bit miffed that we’re excluded. Weak.
Agreed John-Paul – ~$750/year cost for us and no GE/Pre or airline credit to offset the cost as happens in the US either!
Boingo will come in handy since the lounges this card will allow you to go in has been slashed. So have a seat on the floor in the airport near a plug and fire up the boingo. Those lounges were too crowded anyways.
as far as I know, now every boarding gate has their own wifi. that’s limited for 3 hours or less, though