Travelers flying on Virgin America over the holidays will get free in-flight Wi-Fi thanks to Google, the companies said Monday.
Google and Virgin America are teaming up to offer free Wi-Fi Internet service for all Virgin America passengers traveling between November 10, 2009, and January 15, 2010.
The Gogo Wi-Fi service, which was rolled out to Virgin America's entire fleet of planes in May, is normally available for $12.95 for flights of over three hours. It's $9.95 for flights between one and a half hours and three hours. Flights of less than an hour and a half are $5.95. There's a special deal for people using smartphones and other Wi-Fi enabled handhelds that costs $7.95 for flights over one and a half hours.
Virgin America estimates that between 12 percent and 15 percent of its customers are using the Gogo Wi-Fi service. On some of its cross-country flights, between 20 percent and 25 percent of its passengers are using the service.
"Since the launch of Wi-Fi on all of our planes, we've seen an overwhelmingly positive response from travelers," Porter Gale, vice president of marketing at Virgin America, said in a statement.
Virgin America hopes that offering the Wi-Fi service will help it win more customers. In a recent survey the airline conducted it found that more than half the respondents said that Wi-Fi would influence their choice of airline. Google and Virgin America are calling the free Wi-Fi promotion a gift to their customers. But for Virgin America it is also a way to give customers a taste of the inflight Wi-Fi service, which will hopefully whet their appetite for Internet service on future Virgin America flights.
Update at 7:35 p.m. PST: Photos from the flight and a few extra observations have been added.
Virgin America kicks off in-flight Wi-Fi on Saturday.
Click on image for more photos.
So when sassy airline Virgin America offered CNET the chance to test its new Gogo in-flight Wi-Fi service, I jumped at the chance. And yes, I'm writing this 25,000 feet or so (we're still climbing) above the Northern California coast. We're cruising on an hour-long demonstration flight out of the San Francisco International Airport. Check out the slideshow for more shots.
After passing 10,000 feet, I was able to find the sky-high Wi-Fi signal and create an account within minutes. The service works faster than I expected--not as quick as my cable Internet service at home but zippy nonetheless. Yahoo and CNET loaded relatively quickly, and CNET's Kara Tsuboi was able to stream videos. I went straight to blogging, so I didn't take much of an online tour, but it looks promising.
So far the service is available on one of Virgin America's uber-hip Airbus A320 aircraft. That plane (registration N638VA, "My other ride is a spaceship") will begin flying scheduled service on Thanksgiving Day. The service will be rolled out to the airline's entire A320 fleet by the second quarter of 2009.
Of course, the Wi-Fi service will cost you. You'll pay $9.95 for flights of three hours or less and $12.95 for flights more than three hours. I think that's a pretty fair price (particularly if you're on a company expense account) for the privilege of browsing, chatting, and e-mailing while aloft. And don't worry about your laptop battery dying. Virgin America has USB and electrical power connections in every row, both in first class and economy.
The service is available through Aircell, which powers the in-flight Wi-Fi technology. Radio towers through the continental United States transmit EV-DO Rev A signals to the planes. Three antennas on the outside of the aircraft pick up the signal, which is then transmitted throughout the cabin. Aircell is also working with Delta and American to provide Wi-Fi service.
Thankfully, cell phone service in the air is still an no-no due to FAA regulations. VoIP services also will be banned, but you will be able to text if you have a Wi-Fi-enabled cell phone. What's more, Virgin America says it will not filter Web sites.
In this photo--transmitted Saturday from a Virgin America Airbus A320 about 35,000 feet above San Francisco, passengers hold up their wireless devices at the launch of in-flight Wi-Fi.
(Credit: Virgin America)
Virgin America is teaming up with YouTube for its big coming-out party for its Wi-Fi in the sky service.
The California-based airline will launch its Gogo Inflight Internet service on November 22 in a flight over San Francisco. To show off how robust the in-flight Internet service is, the company is planning to stream a live video feed from the plane down to the ground to an audience attending the YouTube Live concert in San Francisco.
(Credit:
Virgin America)
The Gogo service will be available to all passengers on a single Wi-Fi enabled plane starting November 24. And by the second quarter of 2009, the company expects to offer Wi-Fi on its entire fleet of planes.
As part of the YouTube live video feed demonstration, 30 Rock's Keith Powell will be part of the show. He'll be filming a segment in-flight for his Web mini-series with co-star Katrina Bowden. After the flight, guests will then go to the YouTube Live event.
CNET Reviews editor Kent German and CNET TV correspondent Kara Tsuboi are planning to be on hand for the event, so check out their blog posts and video of the event. It should be cool.
Virgin America isn't the only U.S. airline to launch in-flight Wi-Fi. American Airlines debuted its in-flight Internet access service in August on 15 of its 767-200 airplanes. Delta Air Lines has said that it will outfit its planes by the middle of next year with Wi-Fi.
American and Delta area also using the Gogo service from Aircell. The cost of the Gogo service is $9.95 on flights of three hours or less, and $12.95 on flights of more than three hours.
Other airlines, such as JetBlue Airways, has been testing its Wi-Fi service on routes between San Francisco and New York. Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines are also testing in-flight Wi-Fi. And others such as United Airlines are considering offering Wi-Fi, but it hasn't announced tests or a commercial launch.
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