Fly The Wi-Fi Skies

On-board has just met with on-line.

Yesterday, JetBlue, who put the power of multichannel video entertainment into passengers hands, was the first to offer e-mail and instant messaging on one aircraft. Broader high-speed services, including web access, are to come next year on some flights of American Airlines, Virgin America, Qantas Airways, and Alaska Airlines.

Yet not everybody sees the access as a plus (what the hell is wrong with these people?).

Steve Jones, an Internet studies expert (how did I not know this job was available) at the University of Illinois-Chicago, said unconnected time already has been shrinking because of cell phones and other handheld devices with interweb access. Soon, Jones said, people will get a break only during takeoffs and landings, as required by law. And thank God for those laws that protect us from having to answer an email or look at the interweb.

Jay Pease, a regional marketing director, said he needs to rest during trans-Atlantic flights for morning meetings in Europe. But he often has trouble sleeping, and he worried that "the temptation would be there to say, `I'll just log on and surf the Internet for a while.'" It's called will power, you pansy. If you can't manage your beauty sleep and control your visits to the Martha Stewart homepage, then maybe you ought to quit your job and spend that time getting your issues under control.

Jon Carson, chief executive with an online fundraising company, said that between kids, meetings and electronic interruptions on the ground, "I get some of my best work done on the plane." Good decisions and breakthroughs often arise from "the kind of deeper, reflecting thinking" not possible when new messages continually arrive, Carson said. I get the impression that his time on the toilet is also deep and reflective. Methinks his best work is done with a bourbon as he flies into Duluth thinking about the hooker he'll pick up outside his HoJo -- and damn the man who's going to make him miss that with more technology.

The bottom line is that people want the connectivity and options, especially with all the cut-backs and reductions in flight service. Taking away meals and boxcutters wounded the traveler's psyche, but giving some interweb would be the adult equivalent of a child getting a box of 64 Crayolas. Plugging passengers in will keep them more docile and happy. Folks could continue their work or just find hot teen sluts. The options are as broad as the web...