Alaska Air WIFI challenges continue

Tech Flash is reporting that Alaska's WIFI service is popular but pricing issues remain. They say Alaska's fee is likely to be $15 per flight which I fear will prevent most users from taking advantage of the service. Although $15 does not seem to be excessive, budget conscious flyers will recognize that a few hours away from the internet won't do them any harm. I'd argue the optimal "price point" for in flight online services is somewhere between $5 and $10 which are still very high by the standard of free WIFI now available in many airports but represent a premium cost that consumers are "comfortable with" in flight as this is in the neighborhood of the cost of a snack box s and even on some flights beverages.

If the Airlines don't hurry up I think this market could literally dry up as ubiquitous broadband reaches most areas in the USA and customers choose to take a nap rather than worry about the few hours of non-connectivity between the WIFI at home, the Airport, and the destination hotel combined with their EVDO or broadband smartphone access.

http://www.techflash.com/Alaska_offers_details_on_in-flight_Wi-Fi_42973362.html

PDX Free Wifi Rocks ... and so does MFR Free Wifi

It is important to acknowledge when a business brings good technology to the table and I'm just throwing out kudos again to my two favorite Oregon Airports: PDX in Portand and MFR in Medford serving all of Southern Oregon and some of Northern California.

Both MFR Medford and PDX Portland have free wifi throughout the terminal complexes, and this makes travel so much nicer as you have a chance to catch up on some email, surf the web, or ... blog about how great free wifi is to have in an Airport.

Sure, eventually widespread use of cellular broadband will make airport wifi less important, but paying many airports the $9.95 "daily fee" for 30-60 minutes of Wifi is painful for reasons that are hard to articulate well given that the advantages clearly are worth that cost. I can only hope that the free Wifi airports see something back in terms of advertising support for the Wifi (seems rare), or an increased chance of business travellers who like this service (hard to measure, but seems somewhat likely).