What is Digg?41 Comments
- strabes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12$18 for 3 hours seems a bit pricey to be worth it. In the airports it's something like $7 for 24 hours, and that's barely worth it. I understand the difference is that this is on the actual airplanes and companies have to equip them etc. I just watch DVDs on my laptop or sleep through flights.
- negativefx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8The only way I'd use in flight wireless is if it was free. I travel at least 16 hours a week in airports and on planes, and not once have I had a good reason to fork over absurd (Sorry digg...I meant 'rediculous') amounts of money for ***** quality, insecure wireless access.
- negativefx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Don't forget the purified filtered water dish for your cat!
- Y0tsuya, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Before adding in-flight Wi-Fi, how about adding power sockets under the seats first so our notebooks don't run out of juice down after 3 hours or so? It's such a simple concept but you'd be surprised how the airlines touting Wi-Fi only provide sockets in business class. And they wonder why nobody bothers paying for it. Also space is cramped. Maybe along with the fee make a separate lounge available for people to actually use a notebook without looking at it from odd angles.
- txcrew, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6SkyMall is awesome! I love looking at gold plated golf ball markers I can get with my initials engraved in it.
SkyMall + iPod / sleep = Quick Painless Flight - nickway, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7If you want traffic get adwords.
You need not spam us with your url....... - BigSlacker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Why not just install some web servers full of porn right on the plane and avoid the data transmission costs.
- venson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I had it on a 16 hr (?) Virgin Air flight from London to Singapore last summer and it was great. Email, Websites, WebCam - it was great - and wireless. I think it was like $27 for the full flight, which wasn't much compared to other airline/airport prices.
However with 240 music CD's, 100's of video games, and 100's of on demand movies to choose from, the Virgin Air entertainment system rocks and took my attention. - rajulkabir, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Depends on your flying patterns. About half of my plane trips are 12 hours or longer (frequently over 20 hours with one or two stops along the way).
Being cut off from handling stuff online for such a long period of time can be a problem, especially during crunch times. When the service was available, it was well worth the money. And even better, though in a bittersweet way, the last few months of 2006 when it was free. - brundlefly76, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Another drawback which isnt mentioned is that a Connexion install adds 1,200 lbs of weight, 1 kW of power, and drag from the external satellite antennas which disrupt the aircrafts profile - all of which probably results in a per-trip added fuel cost.
- whiledo, on 03/25/2009, -0/+4@webtickle
"something other than skimming through SkyMall"
There's your answer. What benefit does wireless internet offer to the airlines? For the first major airline, it might possibly give them a boost as people choose them. But it's unlikely, as the two biggest drivers are who is the dominant carrier on the route you want to fly and which carrier has the cheapest price. And even if it did give you a slight boon in customers choosing you to begin with, that lead would quickly evaporate as the other carriers add it, too. No one wants to be the first major carrier because they know it will at best be a very short term gain that will saddle them with being an ISP forever. So again, what benefit does it offer the airlines to offset the cost of installing, running and supporting it? And don't discount the overhead of those three things. We're talking about adding a device that emits decent amounts of RF in a vehicle that was never designed with that in mind. There would have to be fairly rigorous documentation, testing, and a ton of bureaucracy before it could even get off the ground. The big carriers are not going to open themselves up to any possibility of a big lawsuit because they didn't follow some ISO9000 process.
It would have a possible negative benefit on SkyMall purchases, and that's about it. There's a reason why they always keep the SkyMall magazines stocked and mention it on every flight. I don't know how much they make from it, but it can't be chump change.
So they have two choices - charge a near break-even price for it (again, what's the benefit?), or charge out the ass for it so it's worth fooling around with. The problem with plan B is that then hardly anyone uses it and people just get pissed off. Remember those telephones on the back of every seat? How often did you use those? Probably never, as they also were outrageously expensive. The same would be true of wireless internet access. - Dumbledorito, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I was on an American Airlines flight this week, and it was the first time I saw DC (car cigarette lighter) power outlets under the seats. Have these been around for a while and I've just missed those planes?
Well, that's half of what I'd want for my laptop... - monergism, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I agree but with my recent travels, 10 and 18 hour plane flights get boring and it'd be nice to chat w/ my friends in the States.
- PDelahanty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I wish Amtrak had wireless. I was on a train from Boston to NYC last week and was wardriving (wartraining?) the whole way. Never found a stop that had a strong enough public wifi connection though.
On the ride back, my lappy was set up to broadcast the network "Locomotive Control". I wonder if anyone actually thought it was the locomotive control. - aaronm67, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Most of the time, I think this sort of thing would be marketed towards business people. They don't really care about the price (their company pays for it), and they're mainly the ones who would actually need this sort of service.
- PDelahanty, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I want the remote control blimp...on the plane.
- CohibaVancouver, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I find all this talk of internet access in economy hilarious. On most flights with the seat pitch what it is I can barely open a *paperback book* on the tray table. My laptop? Forget it. It stays in the overhead bin.
- graystar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3After flying on a few US carriers recently as part of a round the world trip - they suck in the entertainment and customer service department. Virgin and Singapore Airlines wipe the floor with these guys.
- Wolfie351, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I can see how it could be useful for a business traveler. But, I'm fine with a book, thanks
- mediahack, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3As someone who spends quite a bit of time in the air, the thought of people endlessly yacking on their VoIP connections is not a pleasant one. Cellphones at the gate are bad enough. I agree with the poster above. Sometimes you need to be forcibly unplugged from the net.
- benw, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2If you think your choices are between surfing the Internet and "skimming through SkyMall" then you are an contemptible waste of a human life. Read a goddam book, fool.
- mousky, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2VIA, the rail service in Canada, offers wireless on its Windsor-Quebec City corridor trains. Most stations also have wireless. Cost? $3.99 for first 15 minutes, $0.30 per minute thereafter, 24 hours for $8.95 or monthly access for $46.
- eropuri, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I used to use Connexion's service all the time when I could (i.e. travelling on a carrier that had it). For example, yesterday I just completed a 26 hour trip, and having Internet access lets you be more productive - as well as simply kill time. There are only so many times you can watch the same movies on a flight (and they are practically the same rotation on each airline on a monthly basis), and the other entertainment options are limited.
$27 for a whole long-haul intercontinental flight is a bargain, particularly compared to the price of the ticket which is upwards of thousands of dollars. The only thing I don't understand is why they didn't roll the cost into the price of a business class ticket. Then Boeing would get assured revenue, the airline could pitch it as a free perk, and the $27 cost increase would barely be noticed by company bean counters. - whiledo, on 03/25/2009, -0/+2@Dumbledorito
But unless the only site you could get to is SkyMall, why would ANYONE shop online at SkyMall while on the plane, rather than just shopping at their normal online places? Granted, I don't understand why anyone buys anything from SkyMall anyway. But this is even more hard to understand. - Dumbledorito, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2It would help if Skymall took Paypal. Don't be so sure of a negative impact, there...
- venson, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I've always wanted to get that cat dish....
- whiledo, on 03/25/2009, -0/+1@Dumbledorito
And sometimes they have AC ports. And sometimes they have something completely different.
http://www.seatguru.com/articles/in-seat_laptop_power.php - dmclone, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Yes, they have been around for a long time. Mostly on the bigger planes and then only under certain seats.
- ORD2FRA, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It will never be a part of the ticket price. The airlines are unbundling services faster than Santa's elves. If the customer is not willing to pay for it, then why carry it? Internet access carries a premium, and that premium will be charged.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Sounds like a good idea, it will be only a matter of time before it's inclusive in the price of the ticket.
However, this assumes we will still be allowed to fly in the future. I read an article on the Christian Science Monitor which stated that air travel will become the preserve of the few very wealthy elite because of pollution and global warming etc. - root1657, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Hate to be the one to burt your bubble, but that airplane is already kicking all kinds of RF of it's own. Specifically, VHF radios. No reason this couldnt work right along with those, which they do.
- Serrac, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3I think that it would probably have a better chance of succeeding they implemented a business model that allowed for membership. Instead of paying 18 dollars for 3 hours, you paid 100 dollars for a month or some such.
Most of the business travelers would use it on a more long term basis than 3 or even 24 hours.
But it would be nice to have the option if you really needed to email someone or look something up on an airplane. - whiledo, on 03/25/2009, -0/+1@root1657
That's a rather sweeping statement. So you assume because a company is pushing a technology, trying to get the carriers to take them up on it, that it's a sure thing? If so, I'd like to welcome you to the world of technology.
It's actually rather hard to figure out what your statement is supposed to mean in the particulars. I assume from your other post you're talking about the testing, certification and bureaucracy clearing I mentioned. That's great, so that didn't cost them any money, right? Money they'll have to recoup later when they try to sell their product? I never said it was an impossible test, my point was that it's a cost which will later have to be recovered. - root1657, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1All of that has already been done, and all taken into consideration. The company that built it is called ARINC. They specialize in this kind of thing.... all kinds of things really...
- Dedpoet, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1@doctorsax
I couldn't agree more. It's bad enough that they now allow cell phone use upon landing. In the airplane used to be the only place to get away from the phones. Now as soon as the wheels hit the ground every passenger instantly starts making calls. Last week I landed after a 1:10 flight and as all the cell phones came on, the guy next to me says in a heavy German accent, "How lucky we are to be flying with the CEOs of so many Fortune 500 companies." Cripes people, you'll be out of the plane in 10 more minutes tops. You're not that important. I promise. - jusme, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0brundlefly76, are you sure you should be giving out Boeing proprietary information? I did a quick search online and I couldn't find that information anywhere in the public domain. You may want to start polishing your resume. There are other people at Boeing, besides myself, that read digg.
- PDelahanty, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1I can picture people buying access just to e-mail or IM and say, "Guess where I am!"
That's the only reason people ever used those damn phones years ago. (I haven't seen anyone use one of those phones in over 10 years now.) - p0164, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1It probably wouldn't pass muster for the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration). Too many other airplane components sensitive to stray radio waves.
- negativefx, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2web cam strip tease.
I don't think I need to say anything else.
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