If I could get out of my seat and jump up and down like a perky cheerleader and do a cartwheel, I would. That’s how excited I am about having internet while flying.
I’m heading home from JFK to SFO right now – as I write this I’m sitting in a window seat looking down on clouds and the map on the screen says I’m above Ohio and heading west.
While sitting in the waiting area outside the gate for my flight I heard an announcement that wi-fi would be available on the flight. A boy near me (probably around 10 years old) perked up and said, “how do they get wi-fi up the air? that must be a miracle!”
I was and am so excited to try it out and use it. It was really easy to sign up – select the network (gogoinflight), open web browser, enter a url so it’ll redirect you to pay for the service (just like a hotel or other public paid wifi), pay $12.95 (which seems reasonable – using phones on airplanes 15 years ago was more expensive than that) and, voila, connection:
The first thing I thought to do was see if I could video chat with my wife and daughter because it’s breakfast time for them. I figured it wouldn’t be a fast enough connection and the video would be pixelated and fuzzy, but it was crystal clear:
My wife, who hates to fly, said this might make it easier for her to fly (yay!) if she can stay and be connected with people on the ground while she’s, eeks, 35000 miles up in the air.
My 4 1/2 year old daughter wasn’t so impressed probably because she wants to grow up to be a dragon and a fairy and thinks she has within her the ability to fly like a bird, so, for her, everything is possible and there are no limitations to what can be done, so of course there’s internet access on an airplane in the sky.
Virgin America has become my favorite airline. Their frequent flyer points program doesn’t make sense to me but I don’t care as much about points now as I used to. Their inflight team always seems a bit more junior than United. The thing I care about is amenities – particularly if I’m flying with my daughter. I have a power outlet at my seat to keep a laptop and other gadgets charged for the entire flight; I can easily order drinks and food from my seat; and now I have internet access for (hopefully) almost all of the time that I’m 35,000 feet in the air.
It’s my daughter’s favorite airline too – because the lights are pink and purple and she likes playing with the touchscreen and all of the buttons on the control pad in the chair arm.
