According to NBC News (by way of AP) the big three US airlines-Delta, American, and United- are going to start offering wifi on international flights. They already offer it on many domestic flights, but starting in early 2013 will also have it on overseas flights. One of my coworkers is not excited—she says these are the only flights she has where she doesn’t have to be available to clients. However, I am super stoked—it will allow me to be more productive and maintain contact with home. Of course, it might cut into my movie time…..hmmmm……
Readers, would you use wifi on an overseas flight?
Think I would use sparingly. Biggest concern is people who would we skype-ing, potentially very irritating…
Very excited. The Internet is a great time siphon when I don’t have time to waste; it’s an amazing time siphon when I do have time to waste. Then again I’m not required to be in contact with the office during such flights (and have no intention of doing so either 🙂 ).
it will be great … back in 2006 when JAL still had Connexion by Boeing, I paid only $20 for wifi on JFK-NRT … granted it was slower connection back then but it’s still great way to fill a 14 hr flight
sure beats gogo charging the same price for a 4.5 hr transcon
Right. Because United has so many domestic aircraft with WiFi. DL and AA I have no doubt about deploying this. Though one does wonder if this is viable since QF has pulled WiFi and I understand LH isn’t exactly raking in the cash from their WiFi experiment. I’d bet it boils down to cost and day versus primarily night flights where people prefer to sleep.
Skype is blocked. There are workarounds for VoIP but the average joe won’t be using them to make a phone / video call. Doesn’t really happen on GoGo domestically.
I believe this is a step towards success, more and more people are frustrated about the long flights that can be spent more productively or even enjoyably. All in all I don’t see anything negative with this process.