JetBlue’s in-flight e-mail + IM tested

Despite the fact that Jaunted wasn’t that excited about JetBlue’s new in-flight Wi-Fi, I was happy to see that they found a way to test it out anyway. The cool kids are supposed to stay cool, and they did.

Jaunted texted with Virgin America’s Charles Ogilvie who was on JetBlue’s first BetaBlue-enabled flight from New York (JFK) to San Francisco (SFO) this morning. You can read all about it in Jaunted’s blog post, “JetBlue WiFi: Chatting on IM at 34,000 feet.”

There were all sorts of media on board, as you can imagine. Engadget has already put up a thorough photo essay of their hit-and-miss experience in the post, “Hands-on with BetaBlue, JetBlue’s WiFi-equipped Airbus.”

Deal or no Deal? JetBlue is also launching a four-day sale and there is a big sign on the website saying “Wireless Onboard.” But don’t be fooled — it’s not easy to get a BetaBlue-enabled plane.

Have you ridden JetBlue’s Airbus A320? How did the e-mail and IM work out for you?

In fact, the Airbus A320 is the only JetBlue plane with the BetaBlue capabilities right now and there’s no way to make a plan to get on it. I talked to a JetBlue media representative this morning, and he said that JetBlue will continue testing it and gaining customer feedback before rolling it out system-wide. He couldn’t give me a date for the first flight from Long Beach and said that the plane would go into the system’s rotation. It could most likely be found as a “pleasant surprise” on longer flights.

Pass me the cheese to go with my whine, because I would’ve liked to have been on that flight. I’ll have to wait until next year and fly the first Virgin America Wi-Fi flight.

Contact: JetBlue, 800-JETBLUE (538-2583); it costs an extra $10 to book by phone.

— Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel Deal Blogger

[Photo: JetBlue.com]

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 11, 2007 at 2:18 pm by Jen Leo and is filed under Business Travel, Frequent Flier, News, Tips & Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.