It wasn’t so long ago that when you went on a business trip you could tell your boss that you will be unreachable for a few hours. Now that wireless Internet service is spreading among U.S. airlines, you can’t use that excuse anymore.
Delta and American have installed the service on about a dozen planes and other carriers are planning to test it. The service costs about $10 for three hours and more for longer flights. It will also help those that suffer from web withdrawal.
According to a recent report, this new frill can be a cause of tension among passengers in a packed plane. One flight attendants’ union is even worried that terrorists can use it to plot their next attack.
Another inescapable fact is that the airplane can now be a mobile office.
Brent Bigler, a financial planner living in Los Angeles, reportedly paid $12.95 on a recent American Airlines flight checking his e-mail and searching the Internet. He even e-mailed a friend that he would be late for dinner when his flight was delayed.
Bigler does say that there is a downside.
This could be the same thing as what happened with cellphones and BlackBerrys. Once it’s cheap and ubiquitous, employers might expect employees to participate. I may feel guilty if it were a Monday and I napped or read and didn’t use the Internet to do work.
Airline executives also realize that there could be other issues.
Delta has told its flight attendants to treat overly enthusiastic users of Wi-Fi like people who drink too much. In other words, cut them off if they start bothering others around them.
The Association of Flight Attendants, which represents 55,000 employees at 20 airlines, except Delta, say that Wi-Fi is “a potential threat to flight attendants’ ability to keep order in the cabin.”
Corey Caldwell, a union spokeswoman, says that “[o]ur duties involve securing the safety of the cabin, not acting as censor police…It just adds another layer of duties inside the cabin, which take away from the main requirement that flight attendants are on board for.”
Caldwell is also worried that terrorists can communicate with each other on board or with conspirators on the ground using Wi-Fi, although she does admit that their ability is currently limited.
Travelers who do take advantage of the service say it works well for video clips like those on YouTube, but it’s not fast enough for streaming live events or television programs.
American Airlines is currently offering its service on 15 Boeing 767 jets. If the test is successful, they are considering expanding the service to its entire domestic fleet, although it hasn’t decided whether it plans to do so.
Delta offers the service at $9.95 for flights three hours or less and $12.95 for flights longer than three hours. No domestic carrier offers the service on international flights, although Delta is exploring it.
If 150 passengers buy three hours of time, it could mean an extra $1,500 in revenue per trip.
So how successful is the test?
Delta said the service is “too new to accurately gauge its popularity.” American would not say how many travelers were using the service.
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Amen about not having that escape. Just got back from a weekend trip where I checked email and worked frequently on the ground. But on the plane – where I knew I couldn’t access email – I cheerfully a book the whole way. I am NOT looking forward to United offering wi-fi.
oops, that’s cheerfully READ a book the whole way.