Flying Delta This Month? You May Be Surprised With Free Wi-Fi!

"Hey there! Come a little closer. I've got something to tell you." If you're traveling between New York, Boston, and Washington D.C. you may be able to experience free in-flight Wi-Fi. Delta is rolling it out today on half of its shuttle flights. Just like Virgin, they'll be using the the service, provided by Aircell, for now. If you happen to be one of those lucky people traveling from now till the end of the year through those cities you'll be getting it for free.

This week is just the beginning in Delta's plan to let passengers on its 330-jet domestic fleet surf the Net by 2009.

Delta's policy will allow customers traveling with WiFi-enabled devices such as laptops, smartphones and personal digital assistants access to the Internet, as well as SMS texting and instant messaging services but voice calls still will not be allowed. The service will be offered for free on local shuttle flights through the end of the year. Next year, it will be $9.95 on flights of three hours or less and $12.95 on longer flights.

And if you were curious about all the other airlines:

"JetBlue launched its own plane with a WiFi network last year. The JetBlue service allows e-mail, messaging and shopping on Amazon.com, but lacks unencumbered Web surfing.

Both Alaska Airlines and Southwest are working with Row 44, a privately held company in Westlake Village, Calif., that provides broadband service, but have not rolled out in-flight WiFi. American Airlines and Virgin America began WiFi service with Aircell earlier this year. American Airlines has the wireless service on routes from New York to Miami, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Virgin America is also rolling out a fleet-wide WiFi network."

Happy travels!

Source: Washington Post