You will be able to read my blog from 35,000 feet very soon.
American Airlines announced on Tuesday that is was going ahead with plans to connect most of it’s domestic passengers with Wi-Fi capabilities. AA joins the growing list of major airlines that are looking to provide passengers with the latest in high tech inflight services.
Delta said last December in a press conference that it was going to equip more than 300 domestic planes with high-speed Wi-Fi technology. Delta plans to have all of the planes up and running with internet by the end of the year. As for the newly acquired Northwest fleet, their Wi-Fi will be fully installed by the end of 2010.
Other airlines that are making a buzz about Wi-Fi in the sky include JetBlue and Southwest, which both began tinkering around with their own inflight goodies. Virgin America expects to have all of its 28 planes all Wi-Fi ready by the end of June.
The new American Airlines feature, which will be powered by Gogo Inflight technology, will charge passengers $12.95 on flights longer than three hours, and $9.95 on shorter trips. Planning on using your i-Phone or Blackberry 35,000 feet above Oklahoma? Then you will have to shell out a fee of $7.95 during your flight, no matter how long or short it may be.
One item that still will have to remain off during a flight is your cellphone (thank god!). Carriers are hesitant to go ahead with service for both technically and personal reasons. Oh and by personal, we mean to avoid instances like for example, Seat 7A gets up and decks Seat 8B because he has been drunk dialing Seat 4C since they took off and won’t keep it down.
