Comments on: United Puts Wireless Internet on p.s.

By: CF

CF — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:01:33 +0000

Jane – It’s supposed to be $12.95 for the flight, and your iPhone should work as it’s supposed to.

By: Jane

Jane — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:24:14 +0000

How much would the charge be? Also, what does this mean for my iPhone? Would the applications still work?

Carbon offsets eh? I have actually never flown Virgin but that is a pretty brilliant marketing move, especially if they are touted in-flight.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:25:03 +0000

Follow-up to my previous post:

From Virgin America’s press release when they rolled out the first aircraft with WiFi:

“The first Wi-Fi enabled plane (N638VA) can be tracked in real time via Google Maps at: http://wifitracker.virginamerica.com. During the beta period, the airline is encouraging its frequent fliers and Wi-Fi advisory board members to provide feedback on the service.”

That URL redirects to the one I found via Google. Still, the information doesn’t quite make sense as you’d need three aircraft to fly the schedule, but then two of them would be doing very little flying today.

On the bright side, Virgin America now (as of today) lets you buy inflight carbon offsets… all without WiFi :)

By: CF

CF — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:20:41 +0000

Oliver – Oh yeah, I forgot about that page. It appears that at least three planes have it according to that page.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:15:25 +0000

@Cranky — when I googled for this information, I came across this URL.

http://www.virginamerica.com/va/wifiTracker.do?method=wifiTracker

Can’t quite make sense of the contents, but from the URL it almost seems like it’s meant to give you a way to figure out what flights are WiFi-enabled on any given day.

By: CF

CF — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:31:48 +0000

Oliver – I haven’t heard an update, but they must have a handful by now. The expectation was to have the fleet completed by April or May.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:46:00 +0000

@Nick — I don’t think United ever had WiFi. Some of its partners (ANA, LH) had it for a while (Connexion).

@Cranky — how many Virgin America aircraft have WiFi these days?

By: Zach

Zach — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:08:58 +0000

Randall- Wow…um…that was quite a screed.

CF- thanks for the info!

By: Roundup: Behavior that leads to terrorism charges; Southwest Seattle fares 50% off; United to get Wi-Fi - Travel - LATimes.com

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:27:34 +0000

[...] $12.95 beginning the second half of the year. Do you think they’re late to the game? Read: “United Puts Wireless Internet on P.S.” at the Cranky [...]

By: Dana Traupman

Dana Traupman — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:53:13 +0000

I think this is really neat. I just moved to Portland where I have Clear wireless internet (www.clear.com/?utm_source=bc) and my “Frequent” package includes 2GB of usage per month plus wireless service throughout the greater downtown Portland area for $40 a month. This is the first wireless service that I’ve had and I’m hooked. I don’t know how I ever lived without wireless and I’m glad that the airlines are catching up.