what are your thoughts then on the ideal charge? i believe for first class fliers it should be free. for the rest, it should go by hour because flights vary in length you are allowed to use computers. i do not like the $7.99 / $9.99 boingo type arrangements. in fact airports should reconsider this as well

Here’s what I found online:

Neither company would release the exact cost of turning airplanes into Wi-Fi hot spots. But Blumenstein said Aircell managed to equip a plane for “substantially” less than $100,000. Row 44, which bills itself as the “industrial-strength solution” to airplane connectivity, costs hundreds of thousands of dollars per plane, Guidon said.

Thanks. I had not heard that advertisers were willing to pay for the service, thus, allowing the airlines to add value to flying but not charging the passenger for the service. Revenue from advertisers would cover the cost of installing it, how interesting, since it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars PER PLANE.

Well, I’m not so convinced that most of these airlines are paying much to have it installed. My guess is that they’re getting some sweetheart deals from the companies that want to get their equipment onboard.

Thanks. I had not heard that advertisers were willing to pay for the service, thus, allowing the airlines to add value to flying but not charging the passenger for the service. Revenue from advertisers would cover the cost of installing it, how interesting, since it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars PER PLANE.

Wasnt this temporary free offer really a grace period for these airlines to install it and work out any bugs that might happen. So, they wouldnt incur any customer service complains, while FREE?

No, some airlines did offer it free during testing, but we’re beyond that point now. These guys are just getting advertisers to pay for it instead of passengers.

Phil Vincent wrote:

Well, this assumes that one can actually use one’s computer. I am 6?-1?, 240 lb and my weapon of choice is a Latitude D800. Good luck using that on AirTran (I have tried). Or American. Or Delta, Or whichever.
I’ll stick to paperbacks, thanks.

Yeah, using a laptop on an AirTran 717 is something that is likely to cause severe pain and cramping. The 737 is somewhat better on them. But, remember that you can use your iPhone, BlackBerry, etc if you have wifi. That’s cheaper to use and it doesn’t require gymnastics to actually use it.