AIRA is restructuring its plans including discontinuing its unlimited plan and adding a new option for under 30 bucks a month.
AIRA's $329 a month unlimited plan has been deemed to be unsustainable by the company, and current users are being transitioned to a 700-minute plan for the same price.
"We created the Premium plan early on as a startup. While most Explorers' usage fell within our early projections of usage, enough people exceeded those projections to such a degree that the plan in its present form isn't sustainable. The price we ve been charging for the Premium plan, particularly for very high users, means we are actually losing money providing the service, and no business can keep doing that."
Here's a comparison of plans now compared with those formerly available. Most prices are going up, especially in the mid to higher tiers. Current users may request a legacy plan for the next 30 days and anyone on a current plan other than unlimited can keep that plan.
New Plans
- Intro: 30 minutes for $29 a month. 97 cents per minute.
- Standard: 120 minutes for $99 a month. 83 cents per minute.
- Advanced: 300 minutes for $199 a month. 66 cents per minute.
- Premium (not advertised on website): 700 minutes for $329 a month. 47 cents per minute. May not be available to new explorers.
Former Legacy Plans
- Basic: 100 minutes for $89 a month. 89 cents per minute.
- Plus: 200 minutes for $129 a month. 65 cents per minute.
- Pro: 400 minutes for $199 a month. 50 cents per minute.
- Unlimited: unlimited minutes for $329 a month. 47 cents per minute.
Other Notes
- Additional minutes can be purchased for $50 for 50 minutes, or a dollar per minute, which is higher than the cost of minutes on any of the current plans.
- All plans except Intro can be shared with up to 2 other users.
- Those wishing to use the Horizon glasses also will need to pay an additional $25 a month for 24 months or $600 one-time. Horizon is also not available on the Intro plan.
- The plan for NFB members also remains, which is 140 minutes for $99 a month, so essentially 20 additional minutes.
You can stil get your first month free by following this referral link.
Note: Blind Bargains may get a commission.
What do you think of these changes? Sound off in the comments.
Source: Go to sourceCategory: News
While I understand that business is business and there are many many many things I don't understand about business, I can definitely speak to my feelings on the subject. Since I have the unlimited plan, I am not at all happy with the change. I feel that it was smart to lower the prices on lower plans, but feel that if people want to pay more for the plan they have had in the past, they should be able to. I personally do not want to have to be a miser when it comes to assistance. I understand that Aira has grown faster than they expected, and understand that there had to be some changes. It's just unfortunate that I am one of the ones that was effected by the changes. I hope Aira will reconsider and bring back the unlimited plan at a higher price. I would, of course, rather not have to pay more for it, but I will pay more for the peace of mind. c
techluver Friday, 09-Nov-2018 4:32 PM ET:
Just a small note: I have spoken to a top representative from Aira today (erin sandborn), and she has informed me that the 700 plan is not available to new or returning explorers. Only current explorers.
Orko Sunday, 11-Nov-2018 08:46 AM ET:
I have to agree with Michelle here, I switched to the premium plan for two reasons, the first was that I didn't want to have to worry about how many minutes I had left, if I needed assistance I knew I could always call Aira, the second reason was because the Aira app has flaws on its usage tab where it reports inaccurate usage totals, I wanted to get away from having to manually track my usage with a spreadsheet, I have better things to do with my time. I can understand charging for the horizon glasses, they aren't cheap and continuing to hand them out to explorers at no cost isn't going to work for very long. In my case I will have to think about it, 99.9% of the time I don't need them and just call Aira from my phone, so I'm not sure the $600 expense would be justified. Especially with all the connectivity problems I've had with them.
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J.J. Meddaugh is an experienced technology writer and computer enthusiast. He is a graduate of Western Michigan University with a major in telecommunications management and a minor in business. When not writing for Blind Bargains, he enjoys travel, playing the keyboard, and meeting new people.
