Thursday, August 21, 2008

8 Miles High—and Online


By Julie Tangen
It's really happening—American Airlines is now offering internet access on flights. As someone who used to live in New York City and a frequent flyer between JFK and SFO, I always dreaded the flights because of the long periods of downtime. Although its nice to 'unplug' and essentially hide out from the world for a time, 6-8 hours is far too long to be away from email—especially when you work in high tech. As a famous person once said, "we cannot allow ourselves to commit the sin of turning our backs on time." Companies can be bought and sold, new products launched, editors are on deadline looking for quotes...all happening while I’m 35,000 feet in the air (and may as well be on the moon, as far as internet access is concerned). Eight hours in high tech can seem like an eternity.

I'd absolutely pay the $12.95 for internet access on a flight—in fact I'd probably pay a lot more. But since I live in California now and rarely do cross country flights, I suppose its a moot point :-).

I’m curious to hear what everyone else thinks about internet access on flights—let me know!

1 comment:

Joanna said...

Internet access will be great. It is cell phone usage that scares me - all those passengers blabbing away too loudly, and everyone getting more and more aggravated with each other. I'm afraid it is going to increase "air rage"!