Listen up, jet-setters -- AirTran Airways just got a lot more attractive. Starting this summer, this very airline will become the "world's first" (Virgin America will have its comparatively small fleet of 28 fully equipped by Memorial Day) to equip all of its aircraft with
in-flight WiFi, and when we say "all," we mean "all." Much like the half dozen other Aircell airline partners, AirTran is also utilizing
Gogo technology, but it's doing so across its entire fleet of Boeing 737 and 717 aircraft. If all goes to plan, all 136 AirTran planes will be broadband-enabled by "mid-summer," and as with other Gogo-equipped planes, patrons will be asked to pony up $12.95 for access on flights over three hours and $9.95 for jaunts that are three hours or less. Of note, "handheld devices" can hop online for just $7.95 regardless of flight length, though we get the idea that VoIP calling will still be disabled.
posted May 12th 2009 12:22PM
Air.
This is maybe the only case where I am FOR porn filtering. For godsakes PLEASE filter out the porn.
lulz
yea, very valid point.
this is awesome tho, every airline should do this. and most likely will profit from it charging like 12 bucks per customer who uses it. pretty convenient too, and will make trips much more fun and better for business type people. only thing is...most computer batteries wont last much longer than 3-4 hours of internets surfing...is there a power plug? :O
pls don't filter the porn. what else is my smartphone to be used for?
I know at least AA flights have had power plugs under the seat for as long as I can remember. Need an adapter though ....
How is getting porn from the internet any different from having some porn pre-loaded on your laptop (or handheld DVD player, or iPhone, or PSP .....). In all those cases, the flight crew will tell you to cut it out and that's the end of the game (remember, it's a Federal felony to disregard the instructions of crew members).
Porn filtering is a whole lot of nothing.
That's hawt.
Great news. Thanks for updating. Noah Lieske
That's Tran-tastic.
I'm tran-sexual!
That must have been some Tran-sformation.
Great, now I get to sit next to some dipstick teenager who will text for three hours. That's almost as bad as Mr. Corp Slave who sits there and thumbs his Blackberry for the entire flight. Do people have lives anymore?
Why do you care if they're texting? Read a magazine, watch a movie, sleep, whatever...just mind your own business.
Because reading a copy of skymall for 3 hours is preferable to texting or working?
What kind of life are you having on an airplane? And how come I never get invited to any of the parties that you are apparently having up there?
I'll be flying AirTran next week for a long Memorial Day weekend-- maybe I'll get a chance to try it out. They're a good low fare airline, and I use them whenever I can. For example, when I booked next week's trip last week, I managed to get a round trip from Atlanta to Ft. Myers, FL for under $150. Not bad for a holiday weekend.
Not sure what they mean by "this summer", but I assume it won't be ready by next week.
I'm flying AirTran next week. They've been doing this promo call everyflight for a while to build up to this. Basically they set up this site everyflight.com for people to suggest ANYTHING they'd want to have on every flight. It was pretty obvious from the beginning that they were using it to announce Wifi, as that was the #1 rquested thing (followed by personal TVs)
Hmm.......I'm gonna have to search AirTran first for my flights this summer. Glad I hadn't booked them already. Nice phones will only be 7.95 too. I think I can swing that. But i'll probably just watch some top gear episodes anyways. Don't really need internet THAT bad.
Yea don't NEED the internet, but heck it sure is better than the inflight magazine...and $8 is almost the cost of a car magazine anyhow!
David
www.TheAirlineBlog.com
Great news but praised be the Lord for the VOIP restriction! Chronic cell phone gabbers need not despair. The can still use the digital equivalent to Tweet their little minds out.
yea, they're blocking Skype and video chat. People are pissed and trying to find a way around it, but the fact is the overwhelming majority of people DO NOT want chatty cell phone users on planes.
This is fantastic. I'll probably be flying AirTran a lot from Harrisburg to Orlando in the coming months and now I'll enjoy the flight a lot more.
COD4 Online at 30,000 feet!
YES SIR!
Win.
"Mile High Club" as it was meant to be played...
darn, my looooooooong trip this summer is all continental and royal jordanian :(
nice, but I'll never fly AirTran again. They lost my suitcase for 4 MONTHS once, with me calling or emailing every day trying to figure out either where it is or how I can get a claim put in. The number was usually busy or nobody answered and I rarely got a response to emails other than some bullshit corporate canned response. Finally 4 months later, someone calls me to start the claim, they go into the warehouse to check one last time and surprise, there it was, where it was the whole time. I got a free round trip ticket with an upgrade to their equivalent to first class...I didn't check a bag when I flew that trip.
I dunno, I was kind of hoping for the cowbell myself. Or maybe the slip and slide.
David
www.TheAirlineBlog.com
I had the great opprotunity to preview this service on AirTran this morning. It was amazingly fast. I was able to upload 20MB of photos very quickly. The Today Show was on the plane and they were able to do a live feed to NY via the internet on the plane. Out of the 40+ people who were on the promotional flight, no one had issues connecting up. Very exciting stuff for sure.
David
www.theairlineblog.com
A horse is a horse, of course of course... "Boeing 717"... its a freakin DC-9, a design about twice my age :P
a brand new 737-7/8/900 is still a 737
a design barely younger than the DC9.
you sir, know nothing about airplanes. I would suggest you fly on one of northwest's DC9s that are 30+ years old. You would never know that they were that old because of the remodeled interiors based off *gasp* the 717. You're calling a modern, efficient plane trash because it's based off a proven design that's held its own since the late 60s.
I probably don't even need to mention [but will anyway] the fact that a plane's age is irrelevant when it is properly maintained. Those Northwest DC9s have lasted as long as they have because Douglas built them like tanks. The only reason they'll eventually be phased out is because they aren't as fuel efficient, and will not be cost effective to have heavy maintainance checks done.
How fast will this wifi be?
Net Essentials LLC.
www.netessentialsllc.com
Now all we need is for Continental, Northwest, etc. etc. to hook us up with wifi and power plugs.
I NEED to set up a petition for this!
Northwest was bought by Delta. they will have Wifi installed.
Right now it's being installed on the existing delta fleet and will be done later this year. The northwest planes will start getting it installed after that.
Just one step closer to the day when they begin allowing cell phones on planes. Just one day closer to the day when the first ignorant cellphone yacker gets thrown out at 30,000 feet.
Go-go in flight does NOT disable VoIP calls... I just flew Virgin America First Class to NY from LA and I had no problem using Skype on my iPhone to make phone calls throughout the flight.
It will be interesting to see who else, besides airline companies, will benefit from in-flight WiFi. http://bit.ly/s8Vw3