free Wi-Fi

Tidbits for travelers: Volcano underwear at Schiphol

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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.”

Tidbits for travelers: cool contest, cheap airport food, free Wi-Fi finder

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Some news you can use today.

The folks at BoardingArea.com, a bundled collection of business travel and frequent flyer blogs (StuckatTheAirport.com actually started there) is running a contest with a really great prize: a trip for two to the Gold Coast of Australia. Deadline is March 28th.  I’m definitely entering.

JiWire rolled out a new free Wi-Fi Finder app that will allow you to search for free and paid Wi-Fi hotspots offline. Very helpful.

And if you’re out and about today, keep in mind that it’s Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream shops and free pastry day (actually sort-of free pastry morning; you’ll  need to buy a drink) at Starbucks.  It’s a fair bet that few airport branches of these outfits will be honoring the promotions, but if you find yourself at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport you can definitely take advantage of the “Flounder’s Day” special being offered at Ivar’s Seafood restaurants throughout Puget Sound.  Today would have been “flounder” Ivar Haglund’s 105th birthdays, so if you buy one entrée, you’ll get a second one for $1.05 by saying “Happy Birthday, Ivar” at check-out.  Even at the airport.

When will all airports have free Wi-Fi?

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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:

  • Make sure that you are connecting to a legitimate hotspot – those that require a password have more protection than those that do not.
  • Use a virtual private network or VPN, which establishes a private connection across the public network. This may be supplied by your employer, or you can purchase one.
  • Surfing the web and sending e-mail is fine, but doing your banking for example in a public hotspot is not advised.
  • Configure for approved connections: Many devices sense and automatically connect to any available wireless signal. To regain control, simply configure your device to not automatically connect to an open network without your approval.
  • Disable sharing: Your Wi-Fi enabled devices may automatically open themselves to sharing / connecting with other devices. File and printer sharing may be common in business and home networks, but you can avoid this in public networks.

Got that?

Tidbits for travelers: Free Wi-Fi, Olympic travel tips, and in-flight body-mass tax

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We want Wi-Fi

Slowly but surely airports large and small are getting with the program and making free wireless Internet access available in the terminals.

The latest major airport to join the party: Boston Logan International Airport (BOS).

Hooray!

Packing tips from Olympic athletes

Curious about what some Olympic athletes do when they’re traveling – or getting ready to travel? Them you may in interested in the video clips the folks at VISA (a 2010 Olympics sponsor) have posted of athletes talking about what they pack, how they prep for a trip, how skier Ryan St. Onge just had to have an airport burrito, and what Olympic Hockey player Angela Ruggiero packs in her carry-on.


Just as interesting, is the fact that the credit card company is giving away a trip to the Olympics – for life. To enter, you just need to charge something on a VISA card.

Seat tax on Air France for Seatmates of Size

And, just a day after announcing that it was introducing “the lightest and most comfortable short-haul seat in the world,” on some of its planes, Air France announced that passengers who cannot fit into a single seat (on any Air France flight) will have to pay for a second seat – at 75% of the cost of the first seat.

The new policy applies to tickets purchased beginning February 1st for flights April 1st and beyond.

Think the new rules may apply to you? Here’s the policy for Passengers with High Body Mass.

What do you think? Should seatmates of size be asked to pay for more than one seat?

Free Wi-Fi at Cleveland Airport and new napping suites at Atlanta Airport

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Cleveland Rocks!

Kudos to the Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport  (CLE) and the non-profit group OneCommunity for working together to bring permanent free Wi-Fi to the airport.

Cleveland Airport joins many other smart airports that offer travelers free Wi-Fi year round.  And, lest you forget, from now through January 15, 2010, Google is covering the Wi-Fi fees at a 47 airports, from Seattle to Miami.  Here’s a full list of the participating airports . Let’s hope those airports continue offering the service for free after that.

Nap Time at ATL

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You can now make a reservation at the first Minute Suites, at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL). These “suites”, located inside the terminal on the B Concourse have daybeds, pillows and blankets, sound masking systems, and a “napware” audio program.  Each suite also has a a TV, desk, phone, and a computer.   How much will you pay to snooze in a “suite”?  The minimum reservation accepted is 1 hour and costs $30. After that it’s $7.50 each 15 minutes.

If you try this out, please let us know what you think!