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Tag: In-Flight WiFi View All Tags

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Southwest Wants Their 544 Planes Plugged Into In-Flight WiFi ASAP

January 29, 2010 at 2:40 PM | by JetSetCD | 1 Comment

For everyone who relies on the cheap fares and consistent service of Southwest Airlines, we've got some great news for you today. According to SWA's official blog "Nuts About Southwest," they have concluded their year-long testing phase, which only had four aircraft (of their 544) flying around with WiFi.

They've just signed the contract with in-flight internet provider Row 44 to begin equipping their entire fleet with the gizmos necessary to get us passengers connected at 35,000 feet. Installations will begin in the second quarter of this year, beginning at the pace of 15 aircraft per month and hopefully quickly ramping up the pace to 25 per month.

After the jump...yea, but how much will it cost to use?

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Phone Home from Oman Air, As They Allow In-Flight Cell Phones and Texting

January 29, 2010 at 8:44 AM | by kjb | 1 Comment

Oman Air first impressed us with their unnecessarily nice bathrooms, but now they are moving forward to ruin the entire flight experience—maybe. They are launching full mobile capabilities for first class, business, and economy customers. That means cell phones for all up in the skies. You’ll be welcome to text, tweet, and call all of your friends from your seat. Things should be up and running by the middle of February, which is just in time to apologize to your sweetie for not being home on Valentine’s Day.

In-flight WiFi is also coming to the airline’s entire fleet of Airbus A330s, but cell phones ringing throughout the cabin has us worried. We’ve heard some awful ring tones and text message alerts, and are really hoping that passengers leave things on silent. The airline does promise that the crews will control the services, and that the mobile magic can be limited during quiet times like overnight flights.

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Why Is Record-Breaking Pilot Chuck Yeager Suing Virgin America?

January 4, 2010 at 12:19 PM | by kjb | 0 Comments

We always thought that in-flight WiFi kind of advertise itself, but apparently it’s necessary to get a little marketing behind it to bring it to the masses. Virgin America was just trying to be clever when they sent an email to some frequent flyers referencing astronaut Buzz Aldrin and record-breaking pilot Chuck Yeager, but one of the air travel pioneers was not too happy to be associated with the airline without his permission.

Chuck Yeager—famous for first breaking the sound barrier—filed a lawsuit against Virgin America claiming that he didn’t give permission for his name to be used in their communications. The retired Air Force general usually doesn’t lend his name out for commercial purposes, but we’re thinking that he’s just a little jealous that everyday travelers can now be part of a monumental moment in air travel...and he's just old. Just so you know, the original Virgin America email stated, “Not unlike Buzz Aldrin or Chuck Yeager, you have the opportunity to be part of a monumental moment in air travel.”

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Celebrating In The Skies: Virgin America Will Pour You Some Patron

December 23, 2009 at 10:34 AM | by JetSetCD | 0 Comments

Welcome to our new feature on the ways that the airlines are making you more comfy and less cranky this holiday travel season—"Celebrating In The Skies." Some airlines just want you to sit down and shut up, but these—thanks to extra treats and smiles—will show you how much they appreciate your flying with them.

Do you happen to be flying on Virgin America in the next few days? If so, be prepared to sit back with a free cocktail, free in-flight WiFi, and the chance to win tickets and an additional gift. You see, back when we chatted with CEO David Cush two weeks ago, he hinted that select flights during the peak holiday travel time might get some freebies, and he's made good on his word.

FREE BOOZE, after the jump.

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Jaunted's 2009 Airline In-Flight WiFi Guide

December 17, 2009 at 10:02 AM | by JetSetCD | 4 Comments

Let 2009 be known as the year that the airlines embraced the internet. Whether through Facebook and Twitter or web-only specials, they really put themselves out there. But the most revolutionary change to come was the proliferation of In-Flight WiFi. The seeds of connectivity were planted in 2008 and they budded this year, but 2010 will see the bloom and boom of airlines with WiFi. Already we have eleven carriers that are either already online or signed up to start very soon. And that's not counting the international airlines with their grand long-haul plans.

Let's look at the status of the WiFi on each of these airlines, but first you'll need to know a quick bit about the major providers of in-flight WiFi, and there are three:
· Gogo, a terrestrial-based service that relies on signal towers on the ground. This is the most popular choice.
· Row 44, a satellite-based service that allows for uninterrupted browsing, even over bodies of water.
· LiveTV, used only by Jetblue and sadly lagging behind with extremely limited internet access.

And now, without further ado, Jaunted's 2009-2010 Airline In-Flight WiFi Status Update...

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Continental Hops On The In-Flight WiFi Bandwagon With Gogo

December 16, 2009 at 3:19 PM | by JetSetCD | 0 Comments

We have a saying here at Jaunted when it comes to In-Flight WiFi: even if you're late to the party, at least you've made it to the party. This absolutely applies to good old Continental Airlines who, after recently going cashless cabin, are now catching up with the other cool carriers by announcing that they're getting in-flight WiFi using Gogo.

Happily, it's coming sooner rather than later; with Continental installing Gogo on their 21 Boeing 757-300 aircraft, starting before summer 2010. Continental is Aircell's ninth airline partner using Gogo, joining Air Canada, AirTran, American, Delta/Northwest, United, US Airways and Virgin America. Of course this will only apply to Continental's domestic routes until the whole long-haul in-flight WiFi thing gets figured out, but that's cool with us so long as we're making strides toward it.

Related Stories:
· Continental Airlines To Offer Gogo Inflight Internet Service [PR Newswire]
· Continental Becomes Latest Airline To Embrace Cashless Cabins [Jaunted]
· Continental Is Filling Their In-Flight Televisions With Loads of Channels [Jaunted]
· In-Flight WiFi [Jaunted]

[Photo: bribriTO]

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The Big Three Pioneers Of Long-Haul In-Flight WiFi Are...

December 1, 2009 at 10:12 AM | by JetSetCD | 0 Comments

It feels like just yesterday that Virgin America and AirTran introduced fleet wide in-flight WiFi, and already the long-haul carriers are buzzing with the desire to bring connectivity to international routes. They are so feeling the ants in the pants, that already a "Big Three" has emerged—the pioneers for the next two years in this area: Lufthansa as they resurrect their "FlyNet" with Panasonic, Virgin Atlantic as they ponder how best to go about this with their 2011 aircraft deliveries, and now Emirates.

Emirates is already the king of long-haul connectivity, since they're pioneering the use of cell phones in-flight (60 aircraft are already outfitted with the AeroMobile technology) and you can currently check your email and SMS through a seat-back dial-up connection. And now, naturally, they turn to bringing the whole internet aboard through a satellite-based service called Ku-Band. Nothing's been decided yet, but Emirates did say that they aren't happy with the Connexion by Boeing idea, which Lufthansa had in the past.

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Will 2011 Be The Year of Long-Haul In-Flight WiFi? Virgin Atlantic Says 'Yes!'

November 30, 2009 at 11:24 AM | by JetSetCD | 0 Comments

It's the golden travel topic of 2009: In-Flight WiFi. Slowly, airplane by airplane, connectivity is creeping up into the skies and we love it so much we'd totally go marry it if we could. Now that WiFi for domestic flights is well on its way, the discussion has turned to the feasibility of and the technology needed to get in-flight WiFi up and running on international flights, specifically long-haul.

Lufthansa recently announced that they've already got the goods with their retired "FlyNet" service, a broadband internet connection that they had running sporadically between 2004 and 2006. With the announcement that Lufthansa will be re-inroducting it on flights in mid-2010, other international carriers are sitting up and taking notes. So who's next on the long-haul, in-flight WiFi queue? Virgin Atlantic, of course.

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

Where: Canada
November 23, 2009 at 9:04 AM | by kjb | 0 Comments

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.

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

November 20, 2009 at 9:04 AM | by JetSetCD | 0 Comments

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.

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

November 10, 2009 at 5:04 PM | by Omri | 1 Comment

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:

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

November 6, 2009 at 4:45 PM | by Omri | 0 Comments

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:

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