In-flight Wifi — A First Take

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I’ve bemoaned the arrival of wifi in the sky — the plane cabin is one of the last places where one could be blisfully untethered from e-mail — but felt obliged to try it today out of professional curiosity. I’m currently flying to Atlanta on Delta, blogging live from 10,000+ feet.

Delta’s service is provided by GoGo. I found the log-in process a bit cumbersome in part because of a game they offer through which one is guaranteed a discount on the session. One bets on one of three whirly gigs that race to 35,000 feet. I chose “news” which finished last — great, my first experience on GoGo is that I’m a loser — but I did get a consolation prize of a 25% discount that dropped the cost of my one-time pass from $9.95 to under $8. The whole process, including the game, burned about six minutes of battery time. It will be faster in the future as I had to create an account on this my inaugural visit.

It took seven tries to log into Executive Nomad’s admin page but things seem to be going well now. I’ll check e-mail shortly and report back in a comment. I was able to open a second browser window and download the stock photo that appears with this post in about the same amount of time time it takes on the ground.

The biggest complaint is not with GoGo but with Delta. As I am still a man of the people, I am in coach and that is a cramped place to be on an MD88. My small laptop can barely balance on tray table and my arms are cramped as I type.

I’m sure that I’ll grow to love in-flight wifi though I may still choose to say that it was unavailable on my flight if I’m more attracted to a good book. And speaking of which, Walter Kiechel’s new look inside corporate strategy as practiced by the big consulting firms, The Lords of Strategy, is in my bag and I’ll be tucking into it as soon as I log off.

Now as long as I can avoid cell phone service…

What is your experience with in-flight wifi? Love it? Hate it? Your fellow Nomads want to know.