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[isthisthingon]

Nice

Hello ITTO,

Your flight on June 3, 2011, is currently scheduled to be on one of our WiFi-enabled planes! That's right...you'll be able to check e-mail, surf the Web, and stay connected to the world below via your laptop or other WiFi-enabled device to your final destination for a special introductory rate of $5!

Southwest is proud to offer Inflight WiFi to our Customers. Don't forget to charge your WiFi-enabled device prior to your trip.

Enjoy your flight!
-Your friends at Southwest Airlines

Except for all you business travelers (working for someone else) who used to be able to truly "get away" for at least the duration of the flight. But I'm looking forward to it.

[daviator]

The "special introductory rate" of $5 is about all I would be willing to pay for in-flight WiFi, which is why I have never tried the service on any of the other carriers I've flown who offer it.  They generally charge something ridiculous - $15-20 - and I'm just not that desperate for it.  Frankly, I enjoy my "unplugged" time on commercial flights, it gives me a chance to catch up on my reading.

But it's cool that they notify you, and I'm glad the service is there for those who want to pay for it.

[isthisthingon]

I'm a big flight reader as well, along with napping. But in the event that I wanted to have a cloud-coding flight to the east coast this would be a nice option. But 15-20 is a bit steep 

[perkiset]

Just flew AA a few times in the last couple days and it was $9.95 for my short legs and 14.95 for the long.

I agree, gotta be rather hard up to spend that, other than the novelty. But if I really REALLY needed to get connected that'd be superb. Thinking back, I think I need to do it at least once, hook up a VPN and connect to my cloud to see how things perform.

Personally I'm an iPad movie guy, because I can put on my headphones and separate myself from the person next to me. The only weird thing is when, like late last night, an Alabaman had never seen "one of them iPad thangs" and literally shoulder surfed me while I watched my movies. Unfortunately I didn't have anything with strong homoerotic overtones or deeply chickflick to get rid of my excruciatingly toothless, long & greasy mulleted, flight neighbor.

[isthisthingon]

I just had an idea thinking of that scene perks. A front-facing camera with real-time retinal scan (like the barcode scanner app but better) where only "approved" eyes get to see the movie 

I just got off a flight and barely had time to keep coding in my head, play a round of Angry Birds on my Android and down a Corona. I'm just not sure people will pay much more than $5 for most non-international flights.

[perkiset]

@$5/national flights: yeah, I agree. although the airlines seem to have the idea that they can now charge for everything (I almost had to pay an additional $30 for the privilege of a middle seat towrds the front of the plane. Ridiculous) I don't think people see WiFi as necessary as a blanket or toilet access. Or checking their first bag.

Nah, even thinking as I'm typing this, I'm reflecting on how much people complain about getting nickel-and-dimed now that they probably won't pay for that on spite. South West is probably the only airline that can get away with it successfully because people know what they are buying, they get exactly that. in fact, because of the way they do it it almost feels like a baker's dozen. So people probably won't be to offended to pay an easy $5 because they didn't have to pay $20 for the privilege of having a single piece of luggage.

[daviator]

Yeah, I now figure the luggage charge into the price of the ticket.  I'll buy a ticket that's $50 more expensive if it's on an airline where the first bag is free.  I might even pay $10 or $20 more than that, because I resent being charged for the bag.

Fortunately I don't have to pay for bags on American, United or Delta, so that means I don't have too many airlines that I need to avoid for that reason.