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News and notes from around the interweb:
- United appears to be testing free wifi. Most of their fleet lacks the bandwidth for this, but they’ll eventually be in a position to match Delta and JetBlue. United has said once that happens they will pull the trigger on free.
Looks like United is slowly dipping it’s toes in trialing out complimentary WiFi? pic.twitter.com/IXFXeuVaa3
— Emiliano Padilla (@iTripReport) September 22, 2023
Meanwhile American Airlines has the bandwidth, and charges more for it than anyone else in the industry. They promised free inflight messaging at their Media Day in 2017 and then quietly reneged…
- American Express eliminating the ability to pay for PlusGrade bids for upgrades
- Florida woman ‘borrowed’ alligator from previous job for hotel birthday photoshoot, kept it in bathtub
- Hotel hackers redirect guests to fake Booking.com to steal cards
- Why wasn’t I in the Capital One lounge when Jennifer Garner was filming this commercial for the Venture X Business?
- El Al could allow use of Tel Aviv as a connecting hub
- The U.K. imposes high taxes on departing passengers. If you’re just connecting in the U.K. you’re exempt, though, because they don’t want to disadvantage British Airways versus other airlines by making their tickets more expensive.
In contrast the Netherlands is considering a tax only on connecting passengers of $85 – $106 that exempts those originating in-country. It’s a tax on KLM’s use of Amsterdam as a hub, essentially. (HT: Enilria)
- Travelers: what the cities on your Instagram bio say about you.
— cold 🥑 (@coldhealing) September 22, 2023
- Avis customer had their rental car seized by the cops a previous customer reported the car stolen, found it, and returned it. Avis rented it again. The cops found it. Oh, and Avis insists that the customer pay for the full rental they didn’t get. (HT: Gary C)
Netherlands is considering a tax only on connecting passengers of $85 – $106 that exempts those originating in-country. This dovetails with the country’s clear objective of reducing traffic at Schipol Airport. Lawmakers have already lowered the number of allowed flights, so this is the next logical step. It should have the intended effect of pushing connecting passengers to other hubs in London, Frankfurt, etc.
I don’t necessarily agree with the lawmaker’s strategy but it fits well into their mantra of less passengers is a good thing.
Free Wi-Fi will not get me to switch from flying JetBlue to flying United.
Free wi-fi is the future of things. Now, United Airlines needs to get the ball rolling on updating their system to accommodate free wi-fi. It would be nice if United would hurry along with the remodel of the interiors and add television monitors to all their aircraft.
Does anyone know how much revenue is generated by American (and others) charging for wi-fi? More than a couple of million annually?
Would be excited for El Al to offer connecting itineraries, if only to add another carrier to the India-US market.
I already have free WiFi on United flights through T-Mobile.. I would very happily pay for RELIABLE Wi-Fi. Doesn’t even need to be fast, just useable. I do appreciate it on TATL/TPAC flights where the equipment seems to support enough bandwidth for me to browse/email.
Free wifi is the norm. If it is not provided then the business is 2nd class. Every where you go provides it. We have driven up to McDonalds to log onto their Wifi to make hotel reservations because we can not get a signal on the road.
Wifi is as common now as free water.