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In today’s fast paced society, being connected means everything.  Whenever you travel, for business or vacation, the plane used to be the one place where Internet connection was, essentially impossible to access.  In the past year or so, many airlines have been experimenting with Wi-Fi on their planes in order to make a little more money from their passengers.  Just today, American Airlines announced that they will be equipping over 300 planes with high speed Wi-Fi.

If you typically fly on Delta Air Lines, then you may already know that they will roll out their own Wi-Fi by the end of this year.  American Airlines made this announcement today as they wish to try and pull ahead of Delta, as they are second to them in terms of popularity.  Basically, this is how it would play out.  For laptop users on flights longer than three hours, it would cost one fee of $12.95.  For laptop users on a flight less than three hours, it would only cost $9.95.  Now, American Airlines was fair in the sense that people who have smartphones or PDAs, they will only have to pay $7.95, and the length of their trip does not matter. 

Also, Wi-Fi will only start when the plane reaches an altitude of 10,000 feet so the Wi-Fi will not affect communications between air traffic control and the pilot.  Even though airlines are steadily rolling out Wi-Fi, don’t expect cell phone service to be available anytime soon as it poses a few problems.  However, this is great news for Americans who are flying in domestic flights and need to check their emails or conference with their office. 

Read [USA Today]