Not everyone cheers as Wi-Fi takes to the skies

International Herald Tribune ^ | Feb 8, 2009 | Michelle Maynard

[Jet Jaguar]

For all the annoyance of being crammed into an aluminum tube at 35,000 feet with a bunch of strangers, air travel has offered one benefit: the ability to tell bosses and colleagues, "I'll be on a flight, so you won't be able to reach me."

So much for that excuse.

Wireless Internet service is starting to spread among airlines in the United States — Delta and American have installed it on more than a dozen planes each, and several other carriers are planning to test it.

For the airlines, always desperate for new sources of revenue, offering the service — about $10 for three hours and more for longer flights — was an easy call. And many passengers will cheer the development as an end to Web withdrawal.

But this new frill is hardly as benign as a bag of pretzels. It may be a new source of tension between passengers on packed planes. A flight attendants' union has even expressed concern that terrorists could use it to plot attacks.

[umgud]

So I can set next to some dem whacko and and open up FR on my laptop. Cool.

[Cowboy Bob]

Now all they need to do is install outlets so I can plug in my laptop. The battery won't last for transatlantic flights...

[JRandomFreeper]

air travel has offered one benefit: the ability to tell bosses and colleagues, "I'll be on a flight, so you won't be able to reach me."

That's easy enough... shut down the office internet access to your IM for the 3 hours you're on the plane.

Easy enough for the sys-admin. ;)

/johnny

[Myrddin]

Now all they need to do is install outlets so I can plug in my laptop. The battery won't last for transatlantic flights...

I almost never boot my laptop on an airplane. The battery doesn't last long enough to get any useful work completed. I won't be making a connection to the onboard WiFi on my nickel. I already pay $80/month out of pocket for a Verizon Wireless USB720 that I only use on business trips. I'm likely to dump that expense too. I had only 2 business trips last year. It doesn't make economic sense anymore.

[dr_who]

Let me guess. Still have a ban on cellphones during takeoff and landing. Regulators are idiots.

[jiggyboy]

OMG. Uncensored porn, trying to set up a Skype connection for like a half hour, “hey check out this monkey / drunk / dumbass on YouTube!” every fifteen minutes...the guy next to me is gonna go INSANE by the end of the flight!

I kid! I kid!

[Jet Jaguar]

LOL!

[dsrtsage]

Actually, all first class seats, and every few rows in coach actually have a 12 volt outlet. In coach, you simply need to find out which rows have a 12 volt outlet, and try to get in them. They vary by plane, and airline. Other odd secrets of air travel... On American Airlines, they start serving food/beverages from the back of the airplane (in both classes) on odd numbered flights. On even numbered flights they start from the front.

[Greysard]

I almost never boot my laptop on an airplane. The battery doesn't last long enough to get any useful work completed.

I used to have IBM ThinkPad 240 with an extended battery, and it was good for 8 hours. On top of that, I usually read documents on a laptop, sometimes write my own, but never play audio or video (TP240 had no internal CD or DVD.) For me a typical flight (SJC to EWR, for example) would be about 5 hours, and I couldn't use the laptop for about 1 hour due to takeoff/landing time, so it all worked out just fine.

[Myrddin]

I've been fortunate to get some first class upgrades on Delta from my copious pile of frequent flyer miles. I've yet to ever see a 12 volt outlet. I do have the special adapter to use it. Often, I have to get up at 4 AM to start my flight to the east coast (for a mid afternoon arrival). My face is in the oatmeal with only 4 or 5 hours of sleep at that point. I wouldn't be very productive even if I could find an outlet.

[conservative cat]

I am so jealous! I can sleep 2 hours the night before, and I still can’t sleep more than 15 minutes on the plane.

[Myrddin]

I have a 2nd battery pack for my laptop. I purchased that for the purpose of running all day by the railroad tracks. I have to pull the DVD bay to host the extra battery. That's fine for what I do by the railroad tracks. It's certainly not what the entertainment oriented user wants.

My principal use for the laptop on the road is software development. Lots of large scale compilations and execution of lengthy signal processing. That runs the hard disk and CPU very hard. The battery sinks very quickly. On the railroad, I'm just running an SSH session over 802.11b to the cars. Very low drain by comparision.

[Myrddin]

I am so jealous! I can sleep 2 hours the night before, and I still can’t sleep more than 15 minutes on the plane.

When I'm that tired, I can turn out the lights in seconds. I have to pace the snoozing to avoid missing the food and drink offerings.

[MyTwoCopperCoins]

Emirates is good in that regard. Every one of their seats has two outlets and one USB charge point.

However, the last time I was on one of their flights, an idiot next to me was trying to jam the 2-prong airline headphones pin into one of the outlets. The airline might have a lawsuit on their hands, because the thing is not idiot-proof.

[MyTwoCopperCoins]

This is how the Emirates econoy-class seat is set up:

Notice the outlet on the left.

However, I'm inclined to believe that this is not a feature with Emirates, alone, but with every flight on a Boeing 777.