Would you pay for wifi when you fly?

Although I no longer fly as frequently as I once did, the idea of having wifi available in flight has always been an attractive one to me. However, from this article, enthusiasm drops substantially when travelers have to pay for it.

I think I would only pay for it on really long flights. When we flew from Las Vegas to Miami the flight was around 8 hours, I would have definetely paid for it there as I think it would have made the flight seem shorter. On short flights (a few hours or less) I am not sure the benefits would be worth the costs.

Delta offers it. I flew to Anaheim, CA last week and would have done it but didn't feel like spending $9.95 for access.

Therein lies the real question - I'm willing to pay for it, but am I willing to pay what THEY think it's worth? No.

Since the poll was new and only three votes I added one more option that I think makes it a little more all-encompassing. Apologies to the couple who already voted.

Do the USB offerings from Verizon and company not work in the air ?
Do they actually not let you use cellphones up there ?

I guess that would explain why you couldn't use the USB things, I imagine they use the same airwaves as a phone does since it's the phone company.

I've never flown, I'm actually afraid to. If flying is anything like an 8 hour Greyhound trip I would definitely pay $10 for the Internet during the trip. I pay that much for a ~2 hour movie anyways, getting the Internet for 8 hours would seem like a bargain.

Personally, I don't understand the marketing strategy at all. This is really simple. Airline prices fluctuate so much as it is. You could pay $200 for a flight this week, a month later, fly to the same place, same airline, same flight times and pay $500. People that need to fly are going to buy the ticket regardless. What is so difficult about incorporating the cost of the meals they used to serve for "free" and the price of wifi in the ticket? They could probably make a substantial profit by simply adding $10 or $15 to each ticket price, then serve the food and the wifi for "free" just like the old days. When it comes bundled like that, people perceive it as "free" and the airlines make a profit off of those that don't eat or use the service.

Maybe I was just in retail too long, but to me it's a no-brainer.

When I worked for a furniture company, customers could by pieces of furniture individually, but the marketing strategy was "buy it by the roomful". The "roomful" was discounted (albeit not substantially) but the perceived savings was there. The profit was realized in the added volume by multiple piece purchases. The customer perceived one price.

I wonder how they manage that, do you think it is some sort of proxy kind of thing like in motels. At motels when you connect to the wireless you usually go through their proxy where you put in a username and password they give you at the front counter. On the airplanes will they confront you with the proxy asking for a credit card number before letting you surf?

And how would they secure that? One of my favorite motel past times is spoofing people's MAC addresses and hijacking their connection (its a lot less harmful than it sounds). So technically couldn't a crafty cracker hijack someones connection on the plane while the victim is still paying for it?

I think it's a lot like any land based wifi provider that isn't free. You pay for the service to access it. For example AA uses gogo

http://www.gogoinflight.com/

Details, rates, etc here
http://www.gogoinflight.com/jahia/Jahia ... /gogoPrice

From Aircell (gogo's parent company)
http://www.aircell.com/index.php?option ... technology

I don't think I would pay for it, personally. Anymore I find myself savouring time away from my computers. Plus, I can always browse on my phone.

It would all depend on how much they charge. If it was per hour then i'd say no. If i was to be in favour of it i would be keen on it being all inclusive with the cost of the flight allowing unlimited time or having it as a one off day package...meaning you would pay one sum of about £/$/€20 for a days usage on that airline. Handy if you are connecting flights etc etc.

I know if i had access to the internet during my flight to Melbourne from London it would have made the flight feel shorter. They had television screens on the back of the headrest in seat in front which had hours of entertainment, whether it was music, movies, TV programs or games to choose from. That was entertaining, but there was only so much you could do before it got boring...i mean the full length of my flight from London to Melbourne was about 24 hours (with a 1 hour stop off in hong Kong), so after a few hours of browsing you just got a bit boring.

The internet has many more hours of entertainment on it, and it is constantly being updated so it would have easily filled in the time in which i was sitting on my seat twiddling my thumbs.

Now when I fly it's almost always to Dallas. That's a 3 hour flight for me. I normally work offline on my laptop for the duration. I was looking at GOGO's rate of $0.05 I'm thinking, heck, I'd spend more than that if I went to see a 1.5 hour movie at a theater. To me that's a bargain.

Any tips on places to eat downtown? I'm heading to October Rules Fest (ORF 2009) for a week with my boss at the end of October and we'll be staying at the Adolphus. Never stayed in Dallas before.

You have to check out Reunion Tower. Even if just for drinks. It's pricey but awesome. Rotates completely once every hour to see the entire Dallas skyline.

http://www.reuniontower.com/docs/reunion-tower-info.pdf

For fun and good BBQ there's always Dicks Last Resort
http://dallas.dickslastresort.com/

Dakota's is pretty popular for Steak
http://www.dallasrestaurants.com/restau ... Steakhouse

Really just take a walk around the West End. Anybody can tell you how to get there. There's something there for every taste.

awesome. thanks - I've been to a Dick's before. Back when I was a teen I picked that for my 'you-pick night' on a family vacation and my dad about decked the host when we walked in. haha