said by fiberguy :

Not everything done is about the in-frequent pleasure traveler. It's clearly priced for the business traveler.. at least at this time.

I know some people here believe that when you're in the plane you should sit there comatose, but, there are some people that NEED to stay connected while in flight and this $12.95 fee can make the difference of landing a million dollar contract or not.

Also, considering the amount of grumbling about how if someone purchases an internet connection that it's theirs to do as they see fit, I'm sure they are purposely pricing this out of reach for a good amount of people - to which I applaud.

When the technology matures, I'm sure there will be some adjustments to the prices, and I'm sure that frequent fliers will get a better price, as well.