Internet on the Plane

Friday night I took my usual flight from Oakland back to Salt Lake on Southwest airlines. When the flight attendant announced that the plane had WiFi capability, I thought I would give it a shot. As I fly a lot with them, I am what they consider an "A-List Preferred" customer and so the Internet was free for me instead of the usual $5.

I thought I would add a Blog entry from the air, so I tested the connection speed. There was a huge latency issue, which means that there was a noticeable pause after typing in a web address before any data was returned. Once the web page started being rendered, it was fast. That was to be expected given the technology they use to provide Internet access on airplanes. I also wanted to see if I could watch a video and so I fired up YouTube. Once again, there was a pause between typing the address and getting the first screen to appear. However, once I started watching a sample video, things ran smoothly and I was impressed with the connection speed.

I felt I had done enough research and so I logged into my Blog and started to write about the experience. Unfortunately Southwest puts a banner across the top of every web page. It happens to cover the heading and toolbar for the Blog site I use. That means I could type text, but couldn't give my entry a title nor add any links. There was an "X" button that should have removed the Southwest banner. Unfortunately it just gave me an error message with an apology as why that wasn't supposed to happen.

It seemed fun to be able to use the Internet from a flying plane and the cost wasn't that bad. If I had a pressing e-mail to send or some critical research, the $5 fee is more than worth the price. My only complaint is that I couldn't use the service to write in my Blog. I'm sure that will get fixed eventually. Until then, all my entries will have to be from the ground.