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Want To Know If Your American Airlines Flight Has WiFi? There's A Widget For That
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.
Tags: Free WiFi / Airports / Airport News / WiFi / Technology / Airport WiFi / In-Flight WiFi / Bing / Google / → All Tags
Google And Microsoft Battling To See Who Can Provide More Free Holiday WiFi
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:
Tags: In-Flight WiFi / Delta / Holiday Travel / Airlines / Airline News / Shopping Travel / Gogo / → All Tags
Delta Gives Free In-Flight WiFi For The Holidays To Trick You Into Shopping eBay
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:
Tags: Jaunted Interviews / In-Flight WiFi / Andrew Zimmern / Travel Channel / Parties / → All Tags
What Andrew Zimmern Thinks About In-Flight WiFi
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.
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What Anthony Bourdain Thinks About In-Flight WiFi
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.
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Virgin America To Offer Free WiFi Over Two Months For Holiday Travel
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]
Tags: In-Flight WiFi / WiFi / Row 44 / SkyMall / Shopping Travel / Airline News / SkyTown Center / → All Tags
In-Flight WiFi Meets SkyMall With New 'SkyTown Center' Service
It was only a matter of time before in-flight WiFi was used for evil. Well, not exactly, but we aren’t totally thrilled that we might be subjected to some hardcore in-flight advertising while we are trying to get some work done. There’s a new service called SkyTown Center and it’s sort of like an online version of the SkyMall catalog. Sure it will bring free WiFi to many passengers, but it will also bring loads of advertisements and access to websites only related to buying stuff.
Thankfully entertainment will also be built into the online shopping service so that passengers will be able to watch some TV, play some games, and read about where they are going. All this will be free, and probably filled with ads, but navigating away to check your email will cost you a little bit. Anything to keep people entertained—and hopefully quiet—in the cabin is a good idea.
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Lufthansa Resurrects Their 'FlyNet' For Long-Haul In-Flight WiFi
With the proliferation of In-Flight WiFi on domestic routes in the United States, we always hoped that long-haul WiFi was right around the corner. In fact it's in the past, with FlyNet from Lufthansa, which was a broadband internet connection on 66 of 82 long-haul planes that functioned between 2004 and 2006. Lufthansa suspended the service—provided by Connexion by Boeing—at the end of 2006 with a promise that it would return one day.
That day is coming in mid-2010 when FlyNet relaunches better than ever, with a partner in Panasonic and the new ability for connection with GSM/GPRS units so that you will even be able to text on your phone from 35,000=feet up. Although there's no word yet on pricing, Lufthansa does plan to outfit a majority of their long-haul aircraft once again, and be the leader in this second chapter of in-flight wifi.
So how great will the connection be?
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United Finally Debuts Some Airplanes With In-Flight WiFi
They are a little tardy to the party, but when it comes to in-flight WiFi, better late than never. Last week United Airlines began WiFi service on flights between New York and California. If you’re a United regular out of O’Hare you might just have to rely on the WiFi within the terminal for now.
The plane that they’ve equipped is a Boeing 757, and they are hoping to have 13 of them ready to go for in-flight fun by the middle of November. That means you’ll be able to email back-and-forth with your ride home for Thanksgiving to say that you’ve been circling the airport for the last 30 minutes due to runway congestion. If your flight isn’t delayed, you can always get a head start on your online holiday shopping.
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Alaska Launches Daily "Nerd Bird" Between San Jose And Austin
Silicon Valley commuters were positively inconsolable earlier this summer when American Airlines put an end to their "nerd bird" flights, the route between San Jose and Austin. Happy times will soon be here again, though, because Alaska Airlines has committed to picking up the slack:
Alaska Airlines today will inaugurate nonstop service between San Jose, Calif., and Austin, Texas, officially resurrecting the popular "nerd bird" route. The flight will originate in Portland, Ore., and the airline will add another daily flight between the three cities starting March 14, 2010. "This route is a natural extension of our network and provides a vital link between these high-tech hubs," said Steve Jarvis, Alaska Airlines' vice president of marketing, sales and customer experience.
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You Can Now Surf Craigslist On 100 Of American's Planes
Gogo a-gogo! Last week, American Airlines reached a huge goal in regards to in-flight WiFi: the Gogo service is now installed and available on 100 airplanes!
Since the process to outfit their domestic fleet began back in August 2008, American has seen everything from twitter-happy travelers to an offer of free wifi for a month with a promo code, and even more fun is on the way. According to Today in the Sky, American continues to be on a roll with WiFi installation: "The airline has now made the Wi-Fi service available on 100 MD-80 aircraft, which is two-thirds of the 150 Gogo installations scheduled to be completed by the end of 2009, according to a company news release Thursday."
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Friday News: Southwest's WiFi Plans, VA's Bag Fee Hike, and Continental's Shifting Blame
· Hold your horses; Southwest is still keen on in-flight WiFi
A press release today announced that Southwest is continuing on their route to outfit their entire fleet with in-flight WiFi from provider Row 44. "The airline has been testing the service on four aircraft since Feb. 2009 and has received fantastic Customer feedback on the product." Curious if your Southwest flight will have in-flight WiFi? We tell you how to find out here.
