The cost of in-flight Wi-Fi: $10 vs. free

I want in-flight Wi-Fi so bad. And then I want space travel under $10,000. Tech Crunch’s Crunch Gear has it on good word that American Airlines is readying their transcontinental 767-200s to be Wi-Fi enabled for service starting next year. The supposed charge would be $10, but I’m more concerned about access.

I like Erick Schonfeld’s attitude about waiting for Virgin America to provide free Wi-Fi. He says, “If I could get free Internet access, I wouldn’t fly any other airline.” I would agree, until I had to fly somewhere that wasn’t a hub in California, Las Vegas, New York or Washington, D.C. I do on occasion fly to Portland, Oregon; Seattle; and Chicago.

But who cares about money when there could be another catch. Will it be a situation like with JetBlue where you’ll have access only if you have the right smart phone, or will it be PC only — no Mac laptops? Since Virgin America thinks in a perfect world, I expect them to have good broadband, Macs OK — and it’s free.

Would you switch airlines to get in-flight Wi-Fi?

— Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel Deal Blogger

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 10, 2007 at 11:07 am 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.