I flew with American Airlines this afternoon from LA to Miami and was surprised to see them offering wireless internet in the air. It’s called gogo and was only available on the flights between LA and NYC or Miami but that’s a start.
The annoying thing was that my laptop battery was nearly dead but I was willing to fork over the $13-ish fee even for an hour of net in the sky just for the sake of trying it out and writing a review. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t work! My wireless networks list told me I was connected but my browser wouldn’t bring up the sign-in page. Oh well.
I had three seats to myself today on the flight from Brisbane to LA and still couldn’t sleep a wink lying down so I think it’s confirmed that sleeping on planes is pretty much impossible for me. Having the internet would be a surefire way to keep me entertained and, hopefully, productive. In flight wifi would be something I would buy on every long haul flight if I’m travelling alone so I’m curious to see which other airlines will be offering this… and if I am actually able to get it to work.
Has anyone else encountered a wifi connection in the sky? Is this something you’d be interested in or do you prefer to veg out in the air and do your wireless working on the ground?
Kirsty,
About two and a half years ago, I used the service called Connexion by Boeing on a Singapore Airlines flight NYC->FRA->SIN->BKK. It worked very well, keeping me connected to the web, email and even IM. I remember chatting with my co-worker as I was flying over Ankara, Turkey. It was $29 unlimited (I think that was for 24 hours, but covered my entire flight with a change in FRA and SIN).
Unfortunately it was discontinued at the end of 2006…
I haven’t had the chance to try any of the “new” services, since most of the US airlines haven’t up fitted their planes yet.
I’ve never been able to sleep on a plane either, or any moving transportation for that matter…. I just took a long flight from Houston->London, no wi-fi, but I’m always skeptical of the bandwidth, anyway – If I had wi-fi I might never get caught up on all the recent Movies. Quantum of Solace, Body of Lies, Righteous Kill, Burn after reading, etc…
-Skip
One thing I like about being in the air, particularly for long haul flights, is that I cannot go online, even if I wanted to!