from the I-hope-everyone-uses-headphones dept.
Delta Airlines is gearing up to make in-flight wifi completely free for most passengers beginning within the next year, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal which cites multiple unnamed sources.
[...] In-flight wifi is notoriously bad, though improving. It's historically been so unreliable that, earlier this year, the federal government had to step in to force airlines to refund customers when the internet craps out mid-air. [...]
If Delta stops charging for the service, it wouldn't be the first airline to do so. Notably, JetBlue offers unlimited wifi, free for all passengers. And many other international carriers offer the service to select customers or under certain circumstances and limitations.
[...] However, Delta is the second largest airline in the world, by number of flights, and would be the biggest to offer unrestricted cost-free internet on its planes.
Would free Wi-Fi tip the scales for you when choosing which carrier you want to book a trip on?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by fraxinus-tree on Thursday December 29 2022, @10:24AM (3 children)
The internet access could be as much crappy as it used to be, but the airline will not be liable because it's free and not a separate service that is paid for. The cost for the internet connection, of course, will be somehow pushed into the ticket.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday December 29 2022, @02:11PM (1 child)
The cost of the internet connection is deep down in the noise of variable fares for the same trip.
The service is maturing, like rides at Disney World moving from A-E tickets to all inclusive admission.
The move probably indicates that they finally have enough capacity to serve everyone on board, maybe not any better than before but at least well enough to not spark air rage incidents too often.
Random thought: now in addition to free influenza virus exposure, we have the opportunity to catch phone and computer viruses from our fellow passengers too. If face masks are too much restriction of personal liberty, are separate NAT routers too much restriction of our digital liberty?
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 29 2022, @03:01PM
Look where they've got to now, with restricting "park hopping" tickets, needing to pay extra to cut in lines, needing to pay even more extra to cut in front of the ones cutting in line, etc. etc. I am confident that this will eventually go the same way.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday December 29 2022, @04:34PM
The funniest bit being that whole convoluted mess you just described actually makes the disaster that are airfare policies more transparent!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Thursday December 29 2022, @02:36PM (2 children)
RFI used to be the boogeyman that might disrupt a plane's electronics so severely that the plane could crash. And now, the public can have free wifi while on the plane. Do they still announce that all electronics must be turned off during takeoff and landing?
The hysteria over RFI was one of many reasons to hate flying. After 9/11 there was having to get to the airport several hours before takeoff so that the long lines to get through security wouldn't cause you to miss your flight.
I imagine everyone hates the games they play with ticket prices. To get the best prices, have to reserve a flight at least a month in advance. Stuff like Priceline doesn't really help much. To get a bargain, you're going to be shoved to a red-eye flight. An extra bit of excessive expense is the cost and time of getting to and from the airport. Taxis are expensive, and taxi unions routinely fight against adding public transport options, try to stop buses and especially passenger rail from serving airports. Renting a car can be okay, but if you've arrived at a bad time, such as two hours after the scheduled red-eye arrival time because the flight was delayed, you're going to get gouged. You thought you had a reservation, but they will have cancelled it because you didn't show up on time. They'll regretfully inform you that they have no compact cars left and you'll have to rent a giant, gas guzzling SUV for twice as much. Parking is another area airports screw over customers. The thing is, that if you can afford to travel by air, you must have money, and there are many trying to get a little piece of that. For instance, Australia had a nasty little farewell surprise for the international traveler. You had to pay a $20 "departure tax" per person before you were allowed to leave, and often, travelers only learned of this as they were trying to leave, after they had converted whatever Australian cash they had left over into some other currency, for of course yet another small fee. Weird. Australia, way to give the visitor fond memories, NOT! I think now, Qantas has built that into the ticket price, and they now pay that tax for the traveler.
Most don't think about this one, but there's also the fact that traveling by air is enormously polluting. All in all, flying sucks. I will only do it if I am traveling alone, the distance is too far to drive in one day, and I absolutely have to make the trip, there's no way out. Thankfully, video conferencing has removed a lot of that need. When I was a kid, before I had ever been on a flight, flying seemed so wondrous.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday December 29 2022, @06:13PM (1 child)
Wi-Fi is fun and all, but a lot of airplanes have the streaming connections providing on-demand content to the display panels in the back of the seats. They should provide Ethernet ports [wirelesshack.org] and bypass the radio-frequency interference issue altogether. Then people would understand a little bit better how networking works. No wait, they wouldn't. No wait, they might; I mean, people understand physically connecting a cable to make things work. The closest analog they have to Wi-Fi is ... magic wands?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2022, @01:15AM
Many laptops don't come with an Ethernet port anymore. Ethernet over USB-C would be more useful at this point.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by richtopia on Thursday December 29 2022, @03:56PM (1 child)
Yes.
If a carrier can advertise zero wifi on a flight I'll take that. Flights are miserable to start, and while flying I want every excuse to ignore the real world and try to sleep or read.
(Score: 3, Funny) by krishnoid on Thursday December 29 2022, @06:15PM
I can promise that, for a small $10 fee. Some assembly required, as it's basically just a roll of aluminum foil you wrap around yourself, but satisfaction is guaranteed or your money back.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Thursday December 29 2022, @09:00PM
No.
I'd pay attention to whether the planes actually fly to where I'm going with reasonable travel time.