Unlimited Flying from $1,500 – Is It for You?

OneGo

OneGo’s tagline says it all: “Unlimited Flying on Major Airlines.” That’s right, binge flying for a set price. Like Netflix for air travelers.

There are four basic OneGo pricing plans, depending on the geographic coverage of the included flights:

  • West – 35 routes, 14 airports, $1,500 a month
  • Central – 35 routes, 18 airports, $1,950 a month
  • East – 158 routes, 39 airports, $2,300 a month
  • Nationwide – 700+ routes, 76 airports, $2,950 a month

To use the service, subscribers download the OneGo app, which features a standard booking interface. Once the desired itinerary is keyed in, the app will display available flights from Alaska Airlines, American, Delta, JetBlue, United, and Virgin America.

This being the air-travel business, “free” turns out to be a relative term. There are surcharges for booking flights less than seven days in advance, for cancellations and changes, and for holding more than four reservations at a time.

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There are also cities not included in the OneGo network, although the company promises to expand the available routes as demand dictates.

For now, only coach-class travel may be booked via OneGo, but “premium cabin seats may be available in the future.”

Is OneGo for You?

The service is clearly designed for business travelers. According to the OneGo website: “OneGo is a service that simplifies air travel for you and your business… Simply put, OneGo is a better way to manage the way you fly so you can shake more hands, have more direct interactions with clients, customers, and co-workers to fuel the success of your business.”

Marketing hype aside, to make OneGo a financially viable alternative to pay-as-you-go flights, a traveler would have to be flying very frequently, on pricey routes. That’s business travel, by definition. And even business travelers will have to do the math, comparing their normal monthly airfare spend against OneGo’s rates. The monthly pricing, with no long-term commitment, at least minimizes the risk of over-paying for an extended period. If the economics turn negative, a subscriber can simply opt to not extend for subsequent months.

Obviously the average infrequent leisure traveler wouldn’t get sufficient travel value from a OneGo subscription to justify the monthly fee. But how about taking a month off from work to gallivant around the country, visiting friends and family, seeing the sights? For that, OneGo might just be the way to go.

Reader Reality Check

Would OneGo make economic sense for you?

After 20 years working in the travel industry, and almost that long writing about it, Tim Winship knows a thing or two about travel. Follow him on Twitter @twinship.

This article first appeared on SmarterTravel.com, where Tim Winship is Editor-at-Large.

Comments

  1. Yes, according to OneGo, mileage-earning isn’t affected. However, it’s a bit unclear to me how spend-based miles would be awarded, since you’re paying a set fee for what could be multiple flights, on multiple airlines. Maybe they prorate a spend amount based on flown distance? Or the airline uses the published fare to compute the miles, even though that’s not what the OneGo subscriber is paying for the flight? Messy at best.

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