Jaunted - Tag: In-flight WiFi

Air Canada Introduces In-Flight WiFi Just In Time For Christmas

kjb — 2009-11-23T09:04:32-05:00

Just the other day we were talking about Air Canada and complaining about their decision to start charging for better seats in coach, but today we have a little bit of better news. We knew the airline was working behind the scenes to equip some of their planes with in-flight WiFi, and the first stage of the installation has been completed.

In time for the holiday season, the airline is testing out the wireless Internet magic over a ten week period—just to see how things go at first. They’re the first Canadian airline to provide the service, and passengers will be busy surfing on routes from Montreal and Toronto to Los Angeles. Gogo will be providing the service, but at first, the wireless will only be available when the planes are actually flying over the United States.

Want To Know If Your American Airlines Flight Has WiFi? There's A Widget For That

JetSetCD — 2009-11-20T09:04:40-05:00

Ever since AirTran and Virgin America rolled out their fleet-wide WiFi earlier this year, other domestic legacy carriers have stepped up their game and mostly stayed on track for connectivity. A great example is American Airlines, who reached the milestone of having 100 planes connected in August, with a goal of 150 by the year's end.

With over 100 WiFi-hot American birdies up in the sky, your chances of flying on one are better than ever. And just in case you get lucky and score a plane connected with Gogo, American wants to make sure you're ready with your laptop by letting you check in advance to see if you'll have the internet on your flight. Via a new widget, passengers may enter their flight number or departure airport and see, up to 24 hours before the flight, if their plane will be WiFi-equipped. You can even share the widget by embedding it your blog, adding it your iGoogle, and taking advantage of other options.

Google And Microsoft Battling To See Who Can Provide More Free Holiday WiFi

Omri — 2009-11-10T17:04:25-05:00

When the tech world's two major borgs square off for travelers' time and attention, that can only be good news for the rest of us. Google had already arranged for free WiFi on Virgin America flights and—as of this morning—they're also giving it away at more than 40 airports across the country. But that's small time compared to the deal Microsoft just struck to promote their search engine Bing.

Bing has worked out an arrangement with WiFi provider JiWire which will allow users to get free Internet in exchange for doing just one search on Bing. This is a campaign that will reach all of JiWire's hotspots which, more or less, amounts to just about everywhere:

Delta Gives Free In-Flight WiFi For The Holidays To Trick You Into Shopping eBay

Omri — 2009-11-06T16:45:42-05:00

If Google made a smart business decision by facilitating free holiday in-flight wifi on Virgin America—more Internet users means more revenue for Google—then the deal eBay just sealed with Delta is positively inspired. Starting Nov. 24 and lasting through a week, the auction site/retail outlet/digital store will be providing passengers with a free promotional code so they can get online via Gogo.

The only catch is that the first thing those passengers will see as they soar online through the crowded skies is the eBay frontpage. The better to do their holiday shopping, you see:

What Andrew Zimmern Thinks About In-Flight WiFi

JetSetCD — 2009-10-27T09:14:17-05:00

Why is Andrew Zimmern's favorite flight the one to Tokyo? This is just one of the many questions we asked the chef, author and Travel Channel show host when we caught up with him at the Travel Channel and Chase Sapphire card party at the Top of the Rock in New York. The answer to that of course, is because the flight to Tokyo is a string of uninterrupted hours of calm. But what we're more interested in right now is one of the hottest topics in aviation today, and that's the issue of In-Flight WiFi.

What Anthony Bourdain Thinks About In-Flight WiFi

JetSetCD — 2009-10-26T10:19:17-05:00

There are some big travel issues a-brewing out there, and we're keen to find out what some big travel personalities think about them. So we caught up with Anthony Bourdain, chef and author and host of The Travel Channel's popular food travel show No Reservations to get the straight dope on how, or how not, In-Flight WiFi has affected his travel routine.

Virgin America To Offer Free WiFi Over Two Months For Holiday Travel

JetSetCD — 2009-10-19T12:10:43-05:00

Hurrah! Big news that could be game-changing for holiday travel plans, if you aren't already put off by the extra fees being levied on holiday flights by some airlines. Just announced today, Virgin America is making their in-flight WiFi—which they have on all of their airplanes and routes—free during the holidays.

Actually the deal extends a bit beyond the holidays to somewhat reward passengers for even choosing VA at all during this season: "From Nov. 10, 2009-Jan. 15, 2010, guests on all Virgin America flights will be able to check email, gift shop online, stay in touch with family and friends via social media, or just go wherever the web takes them – all for free." Virgin's WiFi provider is Gogo, who usually charges between $5.95-$12.95 for access during a flight. Whether this added tech bonus plus the lack of extra "holiday fees" on Virgin America tickets persuades the leagues of winter flyers to change to Virgin from their usual Christmas carrier remains to be seen. Still—free in-flight WiFi all around!

Related Stories:
· Virgin America coverage [Jaunted]
· In-Flight WiFi coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Virgin America]