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How Inflight Wifi Works

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Re: How Inflight Wifi Works

#101

Post by r00fus »

cmsmith wrote: post #91
dheera wrote: post #57

"Prior to the integration of in-flight Wi-Fi, most airline passengers passed their time at 30,000 feet completely disconnected from the world below them — but these days, that’s a highly uncommon occurrence." Am I missing something here? 99% of the flights I take don't offer Wi-Fi, and in most cases not even power outlets. And those that do have Wi-Fi seem to be charging 30% of my monthly internet bill to provide it…

Data >> Anecdotes [1] 60% of domestic flights have wifi on them. My apologies if you are flying outside the US or using regional carriers 98% of the time (which might not be included here). 1: http://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/26/for-onboard-wi-fi-not-all-air... (this was google result number one for 'percent of flights with wifi')

I'm going to counter with my anecdote - of the 6 domestic planes I've been on in the past few months... Only 1 had a working wifi for the entire flight. 2 had no wifi available and the other 3 had connectivity or service issues for at least half of the flight.

Just having a route as wifi capable does not mean you will get wifi on a given flight.

Re: How Inflight Wifi Works

#102

Post by joelrunyon »

tbomb wrote: post #64
dheera wrote: post #57

"Prior to the integration of in-flight Wi-Fi, most airline passengers passed their time at 30,000 feet completely disconnected from the world below them — but these days, that’s a highly uncommon occurrence." Am I missing something here? 99% of the flights I take don't offer Wi-Fi, and in most cases not even power outlets. And those that do have Wi-Fi seem to be charging 30% of my monthly internet bill to provide it…

While its been a long time since I've been on an airplane _without_ Wi-Fi, I don't often see power outlets. And as you alluded to, most of the time its $10 for the duration of that flight, whether its 5 hours or 30 minutes.

Who you flying? AA typically has power outlets under most of their upgraded planes these days.

Re: How Inflight Wifi Works

#103

Post by dheera »

mikeash wrote: post #73
dheera wrote: post #57

"Prior to the integration of in-flight Wi-Fi, most airline passengers passed their time at 30,000 feet completely disconnected from the world below them — but these days, that’s a highly uncommon occurrence." Am I missing something here? 99% of the flights I take don't offer Wi-Fi, and in most cases not even power outlets. And those that do have Wi-Fi seem to be charging 30% of my monthly internet bill to provide it…

I think you're an unusual case. There are a ton of flights with WiFi these days. I don't get the complaints about cost, either. They're connecting you to the world from six miles in the air. It's a pretty impressive technical feat, and $10 is a pretty reasonable cost for that. When you really need it, it's very cheap, considering. When you don't really need it, well, your cat GIFs can wait until you land.

Meh? I'd say the airplane itself is the biggest technical feat. Wi-Fi is like water in the 21st century; it should be free. And without the silly login screens that wreak havoc with various apps on my phone.

Speaking of which, I wonder if TCP-over-DNS might work with in-flight Wi-Fi. It worked well enough to get a crappy kilobit link at a lot of hotels back in the day before I had 4G tethering and stopped caring.

Re: How Inflight Wifi Works

#104

Post by ubernostrum »

nfriedly wrote: post #75

Funny story: some in-flight WiFi services give you a different price based on your user-agent (high for phones, higher for tablets, highest for desktop browers). Fortunately no one can change that...

If you fly a lot and are consistent in your choice of airline, typically you can buy an unlimited-use pass that renews monthly for a flat fee.

If you don't fly often, I know you can prepay for a pass for your flight before leaving home on most services. Though for my use case (flying 75,000-85,000 miles/year on average) the monthly pass is absolutely cheaper.

Re: How Inflight Wifi Works

#105

Post by ryan-c »

nfriedly wrote: post #75

Funny story: some in-flight WiFi services give you a different price based on your user-agent (high for phones, higher for tablets, highest for desktop browers). Fortunately no one can change that...

They also charge less if you buy on the ground. Wouldn't be surprised if they charged more if you registered from airport WiFi. On an android phone, you can connect to WiFi then USB tether.

Re: How Inflight Wifi Works

#106

Post by ubernostrum »

rconti wrote: post #36
greggyb wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American travelers tend to purchase tickets based solely on price. If your consumers are very price conscious, you move as much as you can out of the base price. Don't blame airlines in the US, blame airline customers. Personally, I like the nickel-and-dime scheme, as you call it. I rarely take cross country flights. My typical travel is 3-4 hours of flying at the most. I absolutely prefer a cheaper base ticket price…

They haven't even bothered to try. 3" more legroom for $40? No. Human-sized seat? I'd pay double the price. But I'm not going to pay 5x as much.

They haven't even bothered to try.

Sure they have. All three of the big legacy US airlines have some form of extra-legroom economy: American has Main Cabin Extra, Delta has Comfort+ and United has Economy Plus.

The problem is those seats cost more, and people shop for airfares based solely on the price they see in a search engine.

Airlines have tried all sorts of tricks to get people to buy the nicer seat. They've tried showing it to you as an option at booking. They've tried offering it as an upsell afterward. They've tried offering it during check-in. They've tried branding it as a separate fare class labeled "premium" but still a reasonable-looking price.

It's entirely due to passenger behavior at this point: people will grumble and complain and whine about the legroom and the lack of power and the extra fees for everything, but the next time they book a ticket they'll still just sort by lowest fare and pick that.

Re: How Inflight Wifi Works

#107

Post by ubernostrum »

dazzla wrote: post #97
rconti wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They haven't even bothered to try. 3" more legroom for $40? No. Human-sized seat? I'd pay double the price. But I'm not going to pay 5x as much.

American Airlines way back had "more room" seats which were only slightly more expensive. I loved it and became loyal. But then they stopped. I guess not a lot of people wanted to pay the few bucks.

They still have those seats; they're branded as "Main Cabin Extra". They're not super expensive, but the price will vary depending on the perceived desirability of the specific seat you select (i.e., an extra-legroom middle seat probably doesn't cost as much as an extra-legroom aisle).

Most airlines also build free or discounted access to those seats into their frequent-flyer perks, though Delta has recently begun cutting back hard on that and treating it as a possible-but-not-guaranteed after-booking "upgrade" even for their top-tier customers.

Re: How Inflight Wifi Works

#108

Post by saryant »

untog wrote: post #44
colmvp wrote: post #40

Of all the things I want on a plane, WiFi ranks a lot lower than having a consistent power outlet at my seat. There's nothing worse than having Wifi but a laptop that can only last a % of the flight.

I'd love to see an airline get rid of seat back TVs entirely and just provide power outlets instead. There are already systems that let you stream movies for free over in-flight wi-fi - given that most of us have a smartphone (if not a bigger screened device) the experience would probably be better. Would suck for those without smartphones, though. Maybe they could lend out crappy Android tablets to that minority of…

United and Southwest are already moving in this direction.

Re: How Inflight Wifi Works

#109

Post by saryant »

nly wrote: post #98
scholia wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't even have to be high-end brands. Don't think I've ever bought Levi's shirts or jeans in the UK....

Wait for sales. The Levi jeans I wear are ~£80 a pair, but often come around at £40. Incidentally I believe Levi jeans in the US are made in Mexico, whereas the ones on the market in the UK are all made in Bangladesh. Some denimheads are convinced the Mexican ones are of poorer workmanship. Different washes (colours) are also priced differently and the cotton may vary between them even if they have the same cut (numb…

Wow.

80 GBP is almost triple the normal price at the Macy's down the street from me in the US.

Re: How Inflight Wifi Works

#110

Post by Zarathustra30 »

tbomb wrote: post #64
dheera wrote: post #57

"Prior to the integration of in-flight Wi-Fi, most airline passengers passed their time at 30,000 feet completely disconnected from the world below them — but these days, that’s a highly uncommon occurrence." Am I missing something here? 99% of the flights I take don't offer Wi-Fi, and in most cases not even power outlets. And those that do have Wi-Fi seem to be charging 30% of my monthly internet bill to provide it…

While its been a long time since I've been on an airplane _without_ Wi-Fi, I don't often see power outlets. And as you alluded to, most of the time its $10 for the duration of that flight, whether its 5 hours or 30 minutes.

What airline are YOU flying? I am usually on a 737 built before cell phones were invented. I consider myself lucky if the SkyMall hasn't been stolen, let alone in-flight Wi-Fi.
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