First time here? Check out the site's "greatest hits" or read a random post from the archives. Feel free to ask a question, and consider subscribing to the latest posts via RSS or e-mail. Thanks for visiting!

I’m all for inflight wi-fi. Granted, I have an internet addiction and giving me inflight wi-fi is like handing a bottle of Jim Beam to an alcoholic. But I’ll feed the need for the time being and praise Delta’s recent announcement that they’d be rolling out inflight wi-fi across their domestic fleet.

Delta is joining with Aircell®, a 17-year leader in airborne communications for business and commercial aviation, to install the company’s Mobile Broadband Network on the carrier’s domestic fleet. The system, Gogo™, will enable Delta customers traveling with Wi-Fi enabled devices, such as laptops, smartphones and PDAs, to access the Internet, corporate VPNs, corporate and personal e-mail accounts, as well as SMS texting and instant messaging services. Gogo will be available to customers for a flat fee of $9.95 on flights of three hours or less, and $12.95 on flights of more than three hours.

Sounds good to me. And according to the Gogo site, and confirmed by Scott McCartney, voice calls, such as Skype, will be blocked. I like.

But there are two caveats:

1) Power. No inflight internet is worthwhile if you run out of juice. Will Delta be installing power ports on every flight? Unlike, say, Virgin America, Delta doesn’t have power at every seat. And their announcement doesn’t suggest they’ll be installing it. While installing wifi can be done overnight, adding power takes a lot more effort, time, and weight. In the meantime: Buy a spare battery.

2) Space. If you’re going to open up a laptop, you need room. If someone pushes their seat back, your screen can get jammed into place in the laptop squeeze. Either you’ll need to negotiate with the person in front of you, to prevent them from reclining, or airlines need to add seat pitch to each row. Good luck with the latter.

All in all, I’m happy to hear that Delta is rolling this out, and doing it so aggressively. I’d love to see power, too, but I’m not optimistic. By the end of 2008, 75 planes (starting with MD-88s) will be slated for the upgrade. By the end of 2009, 300 planes should have it. That’s much faster than the JetBlue or American beta-tests.

Related:
- Inflight internet update: Southwest blocks Skype, Continental (hearts) Blackberry
- Feed the Internet addiction: American Airlines will roll out high-speed inflight wi-fi next year
- It’s official: Boeing pulling the plug on its inflight internet service, Connexion

(image)

United just launched a program called Award Accelerator, giving you, the lucky consumer, the chance to pay an extra fee in order to earn double or even triple miles on your flight. But is it worth it? Let’s do the math.

This is similar to Northwest’s “supersizing” promotion.

Northwest gave 1000 extra miles for an extra $20 fee. United, on the other hand, has a sliding scale, based on the distance flown. From their press release:

From To Miles Flown Award Accelerator
miles* (USD)

Chicago Cleveland 316 Double Miles: $9
Triple Miles: $19

Chicago Orange County 1,726 Double Miles: $52
Triple Miles: $104

Washington, D.C. London Heathrow 3,677 Double Miles: $110
Triple Miles: $221

Los Angeles Sydney, Australia 7,483 Double Miles: $224
Triple Miles: $449

*Prices subject to change without notice. Based on one-way option.

In each of these examples, the fee for the extra miles is effectively 3 cents per mile. That’s expensive. While that would be a decent rate when redeeming miles, you generally shouldn’t be paying that kind of bank for something that you might not be able to redeem for equal or greater value.

3 cpm is slightly less than United’s “BuyMiles” program — which I could swear used to be cheaper. The rate there is 3.225 cents per mile, plus a $35 fee.

So, in comparison to buying miles, the “accelerator” program is a discount, but that still doesn’t mean it’s a good deal. It’s getting harder and harder to cash in United miles, after all, so I wouldn’t spend any extra money to collect more of them.

Granted, this is a clever marketing campaign. But it’s in their interest, not yours. If you’re within 1000 miles or so of a great award, then sure, spend the 10-spot and top your account up. But stay away from “accelerating” long flights.

Related:
- The value of frequent flyer miles
- Reader mail: Is it worth $20 to get 1000 bonus miles?
- Is a new frequent-flyer point exchange a great opportunity or a new ripoff?
- Should you put all your miles in one program?
- Whose miles are worth the most: What does the black market tell us?