Alaska Debuts In-Flight Wi-Fi, Offers Free Access

Contributing Editor Carl Unger believes that every trip is worth taking. He loves an extended trip to Europe as much as he enjoys exploring the towns and landscape near home. Basically, you'll find him wherever there is good food, fresh air, and plenty of stories to bring home.

Carl has been writing for SmarterTravel since 2005. His travel writing has also appeared on USA Today and the About.com Boston travel guide.

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Aisle, Window, or Middle Seat: "Window."

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Alaska announced that it has outfitted six planes with in-flight wireless Internet access, and expects to install the service in its remaining planes by the end of the year. The majority of its fleet should actually be enabled with Aircell’s Gogo in-flight wireless service by the end of the summer.

The airline began testing in-flight Wi-Fi earlier this year.

Speaking of summer, Alaska customers can use the airline’s new Wi-Fi for free through July 31. So, if you’re lucky enough to find yourself on a plane equipped with Wi-Fi, go ahead and do a little surfing en route. Once this promotion expires, Alaska’s in-flight Wi-Fi will follow the standard Gogo pricing scheme.

The catch to all this is that flights to, from, or within the airline’s home state and namesake won’t have wireless access until early 2011. Aircell is expanding its operations to Alaska in order to provide service there.

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