In Flight Broadband Trial Ends Lufthansa customers satisfied with service Lufthansa German Airlines has been wrapping up their trial run of Boeing's "Connexion" in flight broadband service, with the airline reporting positive feedback for the service. For the past three months, passengers on certain Lufthansa flights have been browsing via high altitude broadband with their laptops. According to the company, somewhere between 50 and 80 passengers per flight used the service, and 95% of them were satisfied (though it doesn't say if they had to pay extra). According to this CNet news report, the company is now considering whether or not to install the service in 80 additional airplanes. (See our previous articles on in flight broadband here)
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  DHRacerFire Survivor
join:2000-10-10
Lake Arrowhead, CA
 ·Charter
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| Go for it! Nothing like browsing the internet instead of watching the inane in-flight movie or listening to that horrendous in-flight music.
Plug in and have fun, even if it costs more to do it.
And, business types may love it, they can keep in contact with the office while on the plane.
Heck, with VOIP, they could probably make some cheap phone calls right from their seats!
Only thing you can't do is download a decent meal!
And this can only help expose people to broadband, as long as they remembered to pack a compliant device (laptop, etc.).
Of course, when will we see this in America, not for a while, Airlines are cutting costs like crazy right now. Who'd pay to implement this in this economic chill for airlines?
[text was edited by author 2003-04-25 15:27:11] | |
|  | | | Re: Go for it! said by DHRacer:
Of course, when will we see this in America, not for a while, Airlines are cutting costs like crazy right now. Who'd pay to implement this in this economic chill for airlines?
Maybe if airlines put broadband in airplanes, more people will fly. | |
| | |  mocyclerPremium
join:2001-01-22
Naperville, IL
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| Re: Go for it! said by masterpjz9:
Maybe if airlines put broadband in airplanes, more people will fly.
Oh, please...who is going to fly more often just to use broadband? That's like flying more often because the "food is good".
Airline internet is a nice idea, but at this point I can't see it as being any more than a gimmick only a few people would be willing to pay for. The average business traveler is not going to fork over serious dough just to have a few extra hours of access.
Improving departure/arrival times and efficiency of service would be a better way to pull in customers.
mocycler | |
| | | | | | Re: Go for it! Agreed. I wouldn't go to rent a car because it has XM radio. I would go rent one that was a good price, available when I needed it, and runs well. That is one of the most ridiculous suppositions I have heard today. | |
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|  dvd536as Mr. Pink as they comePremium
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ
kudos:4 | said by DHRacer:
Heck, with VOIP, they could probably make some cheap phone calls right from their seats!
Ohhhhh NO! they'd never do that and lose the revenue from those lucrative GTE airfones that charge like $5/minute.
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You can never be too rich, too thin or have too much Bandwidth | |
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| | Great Idea I would be willing to pay on the order of $5 or less more for broadband on short flights and a little more on longer flights. (Although free would be better.) I'm sure many would pay more than that, but I'm cheap.
Great idea and I hope it gets picked up by other airlines as well.
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aim: MiamiKayaker (keep getting asked this, so I'll add it here. I'm male.) | Stupid page:»morph3ous.net/personal/ | |
| Reviews:
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| Return on investment? Seems like a really cool idea, but you market share is very small. How many people on a plane have laptops? Then of those how many use the service? I would guess out of 200 passengers maybe 10 people (I just don't see USA passengers using at same rate) would use it per flight. And what about red-eye flights? Are they just serving business users only. I can't imagine an 8 year old with a laptop - maybe a gameboy.
Overall, I would think it was a great service, but sometimes just getting some well earned rest/sleep is just as important.
[text was edited by author 2003-04-25 17:15:09] | |
| | | | Re: Return on investment? I spend a great deal of time sitting inside those damnable high speed aluminum tubes and the last thing I want to do is drag out my laptop, whether there is a high speed Internet connection or not.
Any email I might get while en route can simply wait until I get to the hotel.
There maybe some frequent flyers who would use this service but I am one who would not at any price. | |
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| | red-eye flights K, what are red-eye flights, and what are high speed alluminium tubes?
As for broadband in flights, I'd be willing to pay around $5 extra for it.
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| | | | Re: red-eye flights A "red eye" is a flight that departs late in the night. Hence, "Red Eye" from lack of sleep.
"High Speed aluminum tube" is my term of endearment for a commercial airliner. | |
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 monit88Intel P4 3.06 Ghz
join:2002-07-23
Canada |  Speed test
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|  Augustus IIIIf Only Rome Could See Us Now....
join:2001-01-25
Gainesville, GA | sure if i were on an all expense paid trip 5$? more like 5$ a minute. don't expect they will actually make it available to average joe. if that were the case we would all be flying in business and first class by now. | |
|  Viggen93Premium,VIP
join:2002-04-16
Hamilton, ON | In-flight highspeed, yes please... I saw this a few months ago, and even read a post on another board from a user who was on the first Lufthansa flight with broadband, and he booked the flight specifically. Anyone want to check out the service, go to the Boeing site here and read up on it.
As far as how many people have laptops on a flight, I was surprised to see "economy" passengers forgo the pleasure of the wonderful in-flight movie (ughhhh, The Royal Tanenbaums) on a recent Toronto-London, Heathrow flight, a few even had the new iBooks (Apple hardware is not cheap, either made or to purchase) so I thing it may take off (no pun intended). It seemed to be a reasonable price (I seem to remember $30-$40 per flight) so maybe on an 8+ hour flight, I'd have me some of that action but otherwise, a short internal flight would have to be priced lower or I wouldn't use it.
My only question is, why is it okay to use an 802.11b compliant wireless card and not a cellphone? I figure the strength of the Tx/Rx hardware and range won't affect the avionics like a cellphone, just my thoughts.
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Isn't air travel wonderful? Breakfast in London, dinner in New York,luggage in Brazil. | |
| |  RoundelBlau Und WeissPremium
join:2002-03-24
Westport, CT | Re: In-flight highspeed, yes please... Hmm, $30 to $40, thats pretty expensive, was that Canadian? Really, that is one months broadband for people, I would buy the service as long as it wasnt more than $20.
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You can still call me Volks | |
| | | | | Re: In-flight highspeed, yes please... Also keep in mind that people pay for convenience. Alot of flights could be foregone by driving, however, it's not as convenient. You could milk your own cow, but it's easier to grab a gallon at the store.
I think it should be rolled out for business class as a mainstay, perhaps first class. It could always be worked into the standard fare for these classes. Chances are not everyone would use it, so it would even out amongst the total flights/customers. I can't really see wasting money on making it accessible to the "coach" section. I guess if it were available to the whole plane, then a surcharge would be best. | |
| | | | Viggen93Premium,VIP
join:2002-04-16
Hamilton, ON | Re: In-flight highspeed, yes please... From the Boeing website, it's actually a wireless network connection with some seats having an Ethernet connection, so it's just a series of hot spots throughout the cabin.
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Isn't air travel wonderful? Breakfast in London, dinner in New York,luggage in Brazil. | |
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| Viggen93Premium,VIP
join:2002-04-16
Hamilton, ON | I "think" that was the price quoted (dunno if it was Canadian or not. Lets consider, you use one of those phones in the seat back and it's $12 (Canadian) a minute from international airspace, so there has to be quite a hit on the airline for data transmission, on a long-haul flight, I'd jump on the chance to do some surfing, beats the consistantly crap movies they have.
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Isn't air travel wonderful? Breakfast in London, dinner in New York,luggage in Brazil. | |
| | RoundelBlau Und WeissPremium
join:2002-03-24
Westport, CT | I would do it too, considering if the price was reasonable enough
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You can still call me Volks | |
| | RoundelBlau Und WeissPremium
join:2002-03-24
Westport, CT | Well Considering how I am a plebian  I would be very mad if this service were not available to the whole plane. I think it should be optional everywhere, nobody should have to pay for it, if they dont want it, but everybody who wants it should be able to use it, regardless of where they are on the plane.
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You can still call me Volks | |
| | | | | Re: In-flight highspeed, yes please... | |
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| Viggen93Premium,VIP
join:2002-04-16
Hamilton, ON | I honestly wouldn't care if there was a $10 maximum increase in the cost of a ticket if it meant everyone could use the service, but some may, especially since the current Lufthansa implementation required (for the most part) a wireless NIC, not many people have them and laptops on flights are still the realm of the business/first class traveller or the poor techno geek in coach. I for one can barely find a place for my meal in coach, let alone to comfortably use a laptop, and upgrading to business class is not an option.
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Isn't air travel wonderful? Breakfast in London, dinner in New York,luggage in Brazil. | |
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| | Hate to fly Since I hate to fly, and do a fair amount of it, I would pay a reasonable fee to use the hot spots. Plus it would probably be cheaper than my drink tab. But if T-Mobile got involved, I could use that service instead. | |
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