How about yes, whatever they want, take everyone else's children? Since we are talking about a plane after all :-)

I'll bill it to the company.

If it were $1 I'd find that reasonable...but more than $5 probably not. Except maybe if it's some god awful 10 hour flight....

Airplanes are now one of the few places people don't expect you to answer phone calls or email. If they had elbow room, leg room, free delicious food and drinks - e.g. rolling the clock back to a Delta flight I took in 1980 - it would be almost heaven.

What do you want to bet that if an airline strands passengers on the ground they shut off the WIFI so you cant look up passenger bill of rights websites and blog spots?

Alaska charges $1 for how long? Just the time spent on-board the plane or can we use it at the airport while waiting to board?

I fly Alaska almost exclusively and would definitely pay $1 to use the WiFi. The only downside is that Alaska is a cashless airline so you have to charge the fee. How long until the price goes up exponentially since it costs so much to run the card? And really, at $1 where no actual product changes hands, why charge at all?

Well, duh. Of course people would rather get it for free. I'd be willing to pay for it, if it was for a reasonable flat fee, maybe different tiers depending on estimated flight time. And only if it's something you can opt out of, not something that's automatically tacked onto your ticket. It'd certainly make more sense than some of the other fees the airlines charge you these days.

If it were cheap, like $1, then I would consider it, but it would have to depend on the length of the flight. I'm thinking 6+ hours for me to find it worth it.

@bobert: You can still have all that. It's now called First Class.

Alaska is a cashless airline, which means you have to charge the buck. I don't imagine it will stay so cheap for too long. Really, at $1, why charge at all?

Having wireless internet will help pass all those long hours you're stuck on the tarmac without being allowed to deplane.

Yes, I will pay for it. NO, I WILL NOT PUT UP WITH BEING RIPPED OFF.

Needs more details. As dohtem said, $1 for what period?

I would not pay much more than that, mainly because I dont really need it.

However if it were an intercontinental flight of 16 hours, I would not mind paying 5 bucks for it... assuming I had wifi capable devices that lasted that long.

Last time I flew, it was a 25 hour flight time and I ran through an iPod, a PSP, a sansa mp3 player, and a book.

Is this WiFi actually useful, or is it like the WiFi on commuter trains, where it takes five minutes to load one web page?

If I am on a work trip I will pay for internet access if I need to. I will say that some airports rock since they offer free WiFi (Portland, Sacramento, Vegas, Midway....). If I am on a long flight and it was around $5 I would be willing to pay.

I will say I was recently at a convention and the WiFi they had was $19.95/per 40 mins. That is just an outrageous price!

I don't get you guys saying no to anything over $1. You pay more than that for a magazine you bring on the plane that entertains you for an hour, tops. I can see not paying much for a quick puddle-jumper flight, but I'd spring $5 for a few hours. More for a longer flight.

I would prefer to pay the extra dollar on the price of the ticket.
I bet the airline is wasting huge money on all the inflight transactions for amenities. No cash for drinks etc, means lots of plastic for this and that.

I'd pay for it as well. Allows me to get some stuff done....it would be even better if there was a power connection to charge my laptop too.

A lot of the use may be on Blackberrys and similar devices. I'm not going to type my credit card information into a tiny blackberry just to find the weather in Atlanta.

I was pulling more for the foosball table. I'd pay lots of quarters for that.

For the last 3 years, I've done all my travel with small children. Which is fucking excruciating for a variety of reasons. I will not have the luxurious, wonderful freedom to use WiFi on a plane for at least another 3 years. I have to move heaven and earth to keep my kids happy and quiet. No time for web browsing.

If I was traveling alone, I'd use the time to read a book. Uninterrupted. Then I'd take a nap. It would rock. I wouldn't even need the internet. Forget paying for it.

@MostlyHarmless: Hmm.... I always bring books on transatlantic flights but I just can't focus to read while traveling.

I still get giddy when I travel. :)

@thepill: I don't know if it's just me, but I find it kinda disconcerting for someone called "thepill" to be complaining about their kids :-)

I don't fly much, but it would depend on the length of the flight, price and what was offered (speed and what sites would be blocked), and if there was a power outlet nearby. It would be worth it assuming I had a wifi device capable of watching youtube or another site's vids, I don't own a laptop yet.

It wouldn't be cool if you had 50 passengers sharing the same wireless connection all watching youtube vids, they would have to have reasonable infrastructure in place to handle all the traffic. It wouldn't be worth paying anything if the internet didn't work properly.

@GavinEstecado:
I agree.

On the other hand, I rarely fly and had NO IDEA planes could offer wi-fi.
So just hearing it's available is super cool.

@Outrun1986: That's a pretty good point. I'd probably just stick to a DVD or a book if that were the case.

@dohtem: Haha I know! Same here. after some time of reading, I get all "wth am i doing reading a book?? I am FLYING for crissake".

Though it wears off fast when you have 16 more hours left in the flight, and your legs start protesting.

@MostlyHarmless: My mom sent me this a while ago, about appreciating technology:

@GavinEstecado: You're saying a ratio of at least 2hr/$ ? Sounds good to me.

@GavinEstecado: it depends on the quality of the connection... if it's only enough to check email and IRC, maybe facebook, i'm not willing to pay. but if it's enough to browse youtube, it'd be worth $2-3

@diasdiem: Maybe he is now a believer.

@diasdiem: Is that the "everything is awesome, and everyone is unhappy" thing? I LOVE it.

I can live for a few hours without the Internet. It's really okay to not be connected. Of course when I went to New York at the end of June I found out about Farrah Fawcet and Michael Jackson from the news ticker on Times Square. Internet access on the plane would have kept me from being out of the loop for those 3 hours. Meh.

Um, people... They're offering a service. They don't have to even OFFER it, and it's not free.

WiFi is not free.

Even if a local community provides free hotspots, it's paid through tax dollars.

Starbucks and other coffee shops offer the service, but you have to pay.

Why should it be different on an airplane?

I can see complaining about some of the BS fees that airlines charge, but this is certainly not one of them.

If you don't want to pay, don't use it. But don't expect them to give you wifi for free. There are costs involved.

@dohtem: Children: The best argument for birth control.

@Donathius: I start to twitch. I mean, seriously, that episode of South Park where they run out of Internet? Just like that. I keep thinking of stuff I want to look up on Wikipedia.

@dohtem: The airline only provides it on the plane. In the terminal, it's up to the airport -- although a lot of 'em do offer Wi-Fi, and a lot of those are free. CLT, for example, has free Wi-Fi.

@diasdiem: Yes, I was just about to comment that, even if they advertise free wifi on the plane, it would surely just become an added "Internet Surcharge" on the ticket price, and probably one it would be impossible to avoid paying, even if you travel without a wifi device. Maybe reading consumerist has made me cynical and jaded, but I can't see airlines giving away anything they can justify charging for.

@Dooley: Stop interfering with our self-entitlement-wank-off :-)

Seriously though, this is the sort of thing airlines should be doing: adding services that cost them little (minus the initial outlay and occasional maintenance) that a lot of people would use and charging a modest fee for it, instead of upping or creating fees for services they've already been offering for years.

@MostlyHarmless: Headaches are hereditary. You get them from your children.

@Zclyh3: That's what I want. My laptop has an absurdly short battery and it's also huge. I want a netbook for travel with an insanely long-hour battery. I've been watching the BB flyer and comments here for a good one. A

I won't pay, even if it is a single dollar. These airlines continue to nickle and dime people.

How long do you think it would stay a dollar if you pay it and they know you're willing to pay for it?

Next they will charge you $5 on the plane if you didn't pay the $1 fee online before the flight.

Then they will charge you a fee in order to allow you to open your laptop on the plane. Don't want any passengers watching any unauthorized movies when they could be paying to stream it on their shoddy service that disconnects you constantly.

Then the $10 laptop carry on fee will come into effect at some point.

You let them walk on you, and they will take it as a sign that you're giving them permission to stomp on your ass wearing golf cleats.

@diasdiem: Anything you stick on a plane has a recurring cost in the form of fuel consumption. U.S. Air once saved $1.7 billion just by using meal carts that were 12 pounds lighter.

@diasdiem: I'm the same way. I've had connectivity issues from time to time at home and when it goes out, I throw a tantrum.

@Orv: Err, sorry, that's $1.7 *million*, not billion. Typo.

Glad to see the OP has fair and even sided poll options available.
I don't see how one dollar equals "Yes, whatever they want...".
Do you pay for your internet service at home, or do you demand it for free?

Would I pay for it? YES, But it would depend on length and cost.

There will always be a charge for Wi-Fi in the air. This is a way to get the businessman/woman to pony up 10+ bucks. They'll just expense it when they do their expense reports.

@Dooley: It's not about paying; it's about how the airlines hose you for everything. As diasdiem said, a modest fee would be okay. But we all know the airlines have turned evil, and the modest fee could end up being kind of gouge-y even if it started out okay.