Well this is a nice way to kick off the July 4th weekend:
Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) now offers free Wi-Fi access to all travelers.
This is especially great news because PHL has long had a somewhat wacky Wi-Fi set-up. The service was free for students all the time and free for everyone else only on the weekends.
So free Wi-Fi for everyone traveling through PHL is a great leap forward!
Here’s great news for anyone who finds themselves stuck at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on the weekend.
The Observation Deck at the top of the Theme Building, which has been closed since 9/11, will finally re-open to the public this Saturday.
(A view of the old version of the observation deck; courtesy LAX. New version: under wraps!)
There will be a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday morning (June 21, 2010) but the official public hours of the deck will be Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Go take a look through the new telescopes and enjoy the view!
Orlando Airport getting Google-ized?
According to this story in the Orlando Sentinel, the Orlando International Airport (MCO) is in discussion with Google for a two-year deal in which Google would pay the airport more than $100,000 a year to sponsor the existing (free) airport Wi-Fi and provide a variety of other amenities, including free Internet kiosks for passengers traveling without laptops and phone booths at the international gates offering free long distance calling.
Sounds like Google is talking to other airports about this same sort of ‘experiment,’ but no word yet on where.
And this sounds like fun:
(courtesy Hot Rod)
This Saturday (June 19th, 2010) Kansas City International Airport will be hosting its fourth KCI Cruise. Not a sailing ship cruise, but the sort of cruise where hundreds – in this case up to 500 – owners of classic, muscle and special-interest automobiles gather in a parking lot to show off their cool cars.
The event runs from 3 p.m. until 8 p.m. (weather permitting; wouldn’t want anything to happen to those cars!) and money raised from the sales of donated food and prizes will go to area charities. The prizes are nothing to sneeze at. They’ll be giving away Frontier Airlines tickets, Chiefs and Royals tickets, Justin Bieber concert tickets (!), hotel stays and more. For more details and for directions to the event, see the KCI Cruise page on the Kansas City International Airport website.
Today the folks at John Wayne International Airport (SNA) in Orange County, California announced a partnership with FreeFi Networks to provide free wireless internet access at the airport.
You’ll need need to watch a short commercial before getting to that free Wi-Fi service, but that’s a small price to pay for a service most of us would rather not be without when we’re stuck at the airport. Thanks, SNA!
And there are several new art exhibits at a few airports around the country:
At Miami International Airport (MIA), photos by architect and award-winning photographer James Palma are on display in the mia Central Terminal Gallery, just past the security checkpoint on Concourse E. The 20 photographs in the exhibition were winners chosen by the National American Institute of Architects over 10 years.
At Austin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS), a new art exhibit up through August 12, 2010 explores the theme of twilight with works from the Multicultural Artists Partnership of Austin. One nice example is Kay Hughes’ “View with Song Bird.”
And the summer installment of the art showcase at Nashville International Airport (BNA) has opened, with works by more than a half dozen local artists, including Pieces from the Past by Mike Andrews
And quilts by the The Zuri Quilting Guild of Nashville, Tennesse.
The march to make sure we’ll never be without Wi-Fi in the sky continues:
Alaska Airlines now has Gogo inflight Internet on six Boeing 737-800 airplanes and promises to have the service on all its planes by the end of 2010. To celebrate, there will be free Wi-Fi through July 31, 2010 anyplace those six Wi-Fi equipped planes fly: look for the Wi-Fi symbol by the airplane door and use the code: AlaskaVisa to log on.
And, a few of my travel tips about cool stuff you can find at airports are included in this free Travel Secrets e-book. It’s got tips from a wide assortment of travel writer notables and if you download it you’ll not only get useful tips about camping, driving, flying, staying healthy, staying in hotels and having fun, but Charity: Water will get a dollar, courtesy of the folks at Tripbase.
I spent a morning touring Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in search of new amenities and services to share.
Along the way my tour guide, Marianne de Bie (who reminded me that she’d been my tour guide almost ten years ago!) shared some stories about what the Schiphol staff did to try to make stranded people more comfortable during the “the ash cloud.”
The airport brought in shower trucks (the kind you see at festivals) and after a few days asked the First and Business class lounges with on-site showers to open them to passengers; which they did. Stranded passengers were also treated to sandwiches, free Wi-Fi, movies and offered toothpaste, socks, and underwear that the airport had quickly purchased to hand out.
“We have dollar stores like anyplace else,” de Bie told me, “But the underwear supplier made a mistake and included 500 pairs of expensive brand-name boxer shorts for men. Those turned out to be very popular.”
To celebrate five years of service to Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT), Southwest Airlines will be throwing a little party at its PIT gates starting at 10 a.m. on Tuesday. Gate games and decorations are promised, but with Southwest, well, you never know quite what will happen.
Even without a Southwest party, Pittsburgh Airport has a few special amenities worth applauding. There’s this giant aluminum and iron mobile by Alexander Calder suspended over the air-side central atrium:
PIT also has free Wi-Fi, exhibits from The Andy Warhol Museum, a T-Rex model on loan from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and an exhibit honoring Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers Neighborhood.
I’m a firm believer in that corny saying, “You can’t win if you don’t play.” Works on many levels.
One example: contests and giveaways.
So here’s some information about an in-flight Wi-Fi contest and a hotel bounce-back offer to check out as you dig out of the snow and head out on the road this week:
Through the end of February, Gogo Inflight Internet is offering the on-line Great Gogo Race. Prizes include a free Gogo session or discounts for 25% or 50% off inflight sessions. Everyone wins something, and when you use your code on a Gogo-equipped AirTran Airways, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, or United Airlines airplane you’ll also get entered into that day’s drawing for a netbook. End 2/28/10.
Red Roof Inn also has a few special offers rights now. If you stay two weekend nights in February, you’ll get a voucher for a free night (Sunday – Thursday) that can be used from March 1 – May 31, 2010. The chain gives year-round discounts to teachers and, through April, is giving guests of many Red Roof Inns in Georgia, Ohio, and Florida, coupons good for Burger King breakfast sandwiches as well.
This month, my “At the Airport” column in USATODAY.com is all about airport Wi-Fi.
And all about why more and more airports, including those in Denver, Pittsburgh, Orlando and, just recently, Seattle and Boston, offer this welcome amenity for free – and why some don’t.
Here’s an edited version of that column:
Free Wi-Fi was on Sea-Tac’s to do list for years, but the airport had to wait until its contract with AT&T ran out before making the service free. “It’s almost become a required amenity,” says Sea-Tac airport spokesperson Perry Cooper, “Passengers expect it now. Especially in places like Seattle where folks are very tech-savvy. In fact, it’s been our number one customer service request for years.”
Silicon Valley’s Mineta San José International Airport started offering the service back in May 2008, says airport spokesperson David Vossbrink, because “we serve a high proportion of business travelers and road warriors who have laptops and mobile devices surgically implanted and [they] expect to be able to always be connected.”
It’s pretty much the same story across the country. Everyone wants to stay connected and everyone wants the Wi-Fi at the airport to be free. But how can airports afford to make it free?
Advertising and sponsorship may be the way to go.
At Denver International Airport, which began offering free Wi-Fi in November 2007, between 6,000 and 8,000 travelers now sign on to the system each day and revenue from advertisers help offset the cost of the service. Sea-Tac Airport has asked Clear Channel, which already sells advertising space throughout the airport, to find additional ads to support the new, free Wi-Fi service as well. And at San Francisco International Airport, advertising is being considered as negotiations get underway to figure out how to support a free Wi-Fi program as well. If they can figure out how to fund it, representatives from Nashville International and many other airports say they’d offer travelers free Wi-Fi as well.
Like LAX and the airports in the New York and Washington, D.C. areas, the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport still charges passengers for Wi-Fi access. “We know many travelers would love to see free Wi-Fi,” says airport spokesperson Patrick Hogan, “The bottom line is that airports like MSP must generate the funds to cover all airport operating costs…There is no such thing as free airport Wi-Fi. It’s really just a question of who pays to cover the cost of providing the service.”
For the full posted version of this column, read Free airport Wi-Fi takes off in USATODAY.com. And if you’re want to know which airports currently offer free Wi-Fi, the folks at Jaunted.com have been keeping a good tally on their free airport Wi-Fi map.
And if you do use a free Wi-Fi service at an airport, a hotel, a coffee shop or somewhere else, the Wi-Fi Alliance encourages you to use a personal firewall, make sure you have anti-virus software, and keep these other safety tips in mind:
Got that?