When working for Birdstep Technology I needed to travel to Oslo and Stockholm often. Since United’s partners were SAS and Lufthansa, I had to use them for at least the Nordic portions of my journey. I hated this arrangement, because I could never get upgraded and because the Scandinavian airline food, thought tasty to Swedes and other low spice peoples, was horrible to me. Pickled fish and hard boiled eggs with cabbage is Devil’s Island food. However, the cure for my businessman blues was soon discovered.
I digress: on flight to Europe, I could be the spokesman for Ambien. If it were legal to do so, I would set up a kiosk in the SFO International terminal pushing $10 pills that guarantee no jet lag going over. I always dozed perfectly and never remember the long trip east. But on the flight back, I am always wide awake, bored, restless and anxious to get home.
The exception was when I took a magical flight that had high speed internet access. Connexion by Boeing was awesome. I was in a zone of productivity and connectedness that I had never experienced. Since I had my Skype and headset with me, I was making calls all over the world from my airplane seat (seemingly for free: $30/flight) and closing out e-mail threads from the past 3 months. I as amazed by my new capabilities and freaked out all those around me who gazed upon my total bliss. Business Class from Europe on United, became less of a premium than flying a wi-fi plane across the Atlantic in coach. Sadly though, it all went away in an instant.
At the end of 2006 Boeing shuttered the operation due to huge losses to keep the satellite operation going. Too few planes were retrofit with the $650K package, too few airlines signed up and too few people shelled out the $30. It doesn’t seem that my $150 (over 5 flights) to the cause helped.
Yesterday JetBlue introduced limited in plane wireless through a company called LiveTV. They started with only one plane in the fleet, but that should grow in deployment and wireless capabilities. Several other US airlines (but not United) are in talks with Live TV, Aircell and Row 44 for in flight wireless offerings next year. It is all good news. While the general public has never liked the idea of listening to an annoying “loud talker” yak away on their cellphone in the row behind them, seeing a workaholic like me pounding away on a laptop or typing my micro messages into a handheld doesn’t seem to ruffle their feathers while they watch reruns of The Office and savor their 1 ounce of pretzels.
In Fight Club, Ed Norton says: “Business travelers have had disposable experiences when they reach their destination on a business flight.” With an ability to ‘opt-in’ to the world 30,000 feet below, you might view your experience differently when seated in rows 14-46 on a 4+ hour jaunt.
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