Hurray For In-Flight Wi-Fi, Next Time

Last week I finally boarded a plane with on-board wi-fi but the magic moment sputtered out. I didn’t even fire up the netbook to try it out.

For one thing, I was whipped — groggy and cranky on the final leg of an 18-hour, four-airport, red-eye journey from Kauai to Hartford.  For another thing, it cost too much.

Delta charges $9.95 for a wi-fi connection on flights of less than three hours and $12.95 for longer flights. I was heading from Atlanta to Hartford, a flight that takes two and a half hours. But with the ban on using electronic devices during takeoff and landing, I’d get less than two hours of connection time. At more than $5 an hour, it just didn’t feel worth it.

I might have shelled out on the earlier flight from Honolulu to Atlanta, had wi-fi been available, but therein lies another issue. Delta’s Gogo Internet service from Aircell doesn’t work over the ocean because the signal comes from land-based towers.

So, anyway, I expected to be happier about this. Maybe next time.