Qantas To Offer In-Flight Internet, Laptop Amenities 155
SlinkySausage writes "Australian international airline Qantas has just announced in-flight broadband will be available across all classes in its new fleet of A380s. Also on offer will be laptop power in economy and internet access in the seat-back entertainment system. They are retrofitting existing 747s with elements of the technology, and providing several ports for passengers with more expensive tickets: 'The USB ports will be used for "viewing of content" on the in-flight entertainment system, though Qantas wouldn't be drawn on whether that would include Divx video capability, or the ability to connect an iPod. It would also allow recharging of USB-powered devices. The Ethernet port is for laptops that don't have wireless, or for people who simply prefer an Ethernet connection over WiFi, which could potentially become congested in an aircraft if in-flight internet usage becomes popular.'"
Internet access (Score:5, Interesting)
I've found Qantas to be one of the most accommodating airlines as well as one of the most progressive. While my last flight [utah.edu] on Quantas was not all it could be (not the fault of Qantas), I would fly them in preference to just about any other carrier and most other carriers could learn from them. Even their international coach is most comfortable with more entertainment options than I've seen on other carriers and given their Internet access, upcoming trips to Japan and China will likely be on Qantas unless the other carriers can step up and offer Internet access.
Makes me wonder (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Makes me wonder (Score:4, Insightful)
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In a sense it's not. Hear me out for a sec. What this is saying is that, you know what guys, the future is NOT shorter trips or flight times. THe future is extended security checks, socks-n-shoes off at some airports, and shrink-wrapped luggage before boarding. The future is extended parking at the airport tarmac, might as well make your phone calls in a phone booth shaped like an airplane kind of future, give you your in
FWIW (Score:2)
Both of the major Japanese carriers, JAL and ANA, have given me excellent service. I fly ANA when I go back to the States (mostly because JAL doesn't fly NRT-IAD), and aside from the consistent professionalism of their employees, the flight amenities are good as well; they put seat TVs in coach several years back, and they had Boeing's Internet access service (Connexion, was it?) installed as well until it was discontinued. I've come to dread the rare occasions when I have to fly a domestic US route.
I'l
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They don't even serve zaru soba any more!
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Already been done, and shut down (Score:2)
I got to use it once (for free!) on Lufthansa before they shut it down. The speed was about on par with using my 3G cell phone as a modem, maybe a bit faster. I VPN'ed into my company's network and printed out a page saying I was typing and printing this from 33,000 f
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And now AMC-23 sits pretty much unused and SES is having a fire sale on space segment to try to recoup some of the costs of running the bird.
useless .... (Score:2)
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This is about time.
Right. There is little enough space in cattle class (even with the extra leg room) without having the nerd next to you decide they are going to get the laptop out. Especially when clambering over each other to get to the toilet etc...
They should leave the internet access and the PC power supply points for business and first class, where you can operate without disturbing the person next to you. If you want to work on a flight, you (or your boss) should be prepared to pay for that.
I do a lot of long
QANTAS... (Score:3, Informative)
Queensland And Northern Territory Aerial Services.
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Queensland And Northern Territory Internet Services
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It would be CUNTARSE if you were.
'Cause an ass is a fucking donkey you arse!
'Broad'-band?? (Score:1)
Worryingly, though, the report says that the broadband will be provided via Inmarsat's SwiftBroadband 432kbit/sec-per-channel service
(yes, I RTFA)
I doubt if one could do more than check e-mail - As they say in the article, if everyone logs on, the flight 'll probably end before one can do any worthwhile browsing/e-mail work..
IMO, the power for laptops sounds more useful to me - on a long haul flight, it will allow me to finish more work in the flight itself..
Hope the other airlines also start something like this soon...
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Another rule (Score:2, Funny)
as a frequent traveller (Score:2)
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Re:as a frequent traveller (Score:4, Interesting)
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Would be interesting (well, in a 'useless trivia' sense as to whether they're allowed to standby/waitlist missed connections onto that flight out of LAX...
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Deregulation helped the United States immensely. "The U.S. airline market was deregulated in 1978. The virtues of the move, though long debated, had become more than self-evident by the mid-1990s: With the government no longer dictating ticket prices and in-flight menus, airfares dropped 40 percent in real terms between 19
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Qantas offers a flight SYD > LAX > JFK. The LAX-JFK leg is flown by Qantas, not codeshare.
I think this is okay, because the actual flight origin is technically Sydney, not within the US. That being said, you are able to purchase tickets purely for the LAX > JFK leg, and thus fly a foreign airline entirely within the US.
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Definitely Qantas (Score:5, Funny)
Raymond: QANTAS. QANTAS never crashed.
Charlie: QANTAS?
Raymond: Never crashed.
Charlie: Oh that's gonna do me a lot of good because QANTAS doesn't fly to Los Angeles out of Cincinnati, you have to get to Melbourne! Melbourne, Australia in order to get the plane that flies to Los Angeles!
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Of course, it won't be free (Score:2)
This Internet access won't be free, in fact it will probably cost much more then the prices at the airport. Personally, I don't think I would use such a facility (unless it was free), if I have my laptop, well I have NetHack, lots of E-Books (though
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Ryanair, on the other hand, are the biggest international airline in the world, and have had 0 craft lost and 0 deaths.
Re:Of course, it won't be free (Score:4, Informative)
It's also a little tenuous to suggest that an airline founded in 1985 with a fleet of 136 aircraft having no lost aircraft is comparable to an airline founded in 1920 with a fleet of 230 is comparable, especially when, as you note, both Qantas and Ryanair are at zero losses in the jet age.
And on that jet age note, it's also rather important to point out that Qantas have ALSO had zero deaths since moving to into the jet age.
So let's not start holding Ryanair as superior just yet.
Overnight Flights & sleeping (Score:1, Interesting)
A good compromise would be to have a work area someplace in the plane where you can get thing accomplished without bothering anyone else. But space is mon
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Re:Overnight Flights & sleeping (Score:5, Insightful)
On my last long distance flight (a proper long distance flight with two legs lasting 15 and 13 hours respectively), they handed out eyeshades so self-righteous pricks could sleep without worrying about what their neighbour whose bodyclock might be on who knows what timezone is doing. As for going to the galley, do you really think getting in the way of the staff is better than quietly enjoying the facilities that were put there for you at your own seat?
Thank you... (Score:2)
Of course these people certainly make a good argument for avoiding mass transit.
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During the US portion of my trip last week, I was told that simply congregating in the aisle or galley was prohibited, regardless if you were near the front.
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I've had to help tie down and isolate a drunk heroin addict who had already slugged
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David Boon, a famous Australian cricketer, is legendary and admired for one thing (and it's not the 'tash!): Drinking 52 cans of beer on a flight from Sydney to London.
It's our god-given right as Aussies to sink piss on planes!
Carlton United 93 (Score:2)
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You'd think so, until I had the misfortune to have to endure United Melbourne - Sydney - San Francisco - Seattle. "One alcoholic beverage per passenger" (although it may have been "one free ..."). And not just policy, but enforced. I watched a guy ask, after getting wine from the attendant in his aisle, another attendant. She yelled down the aisle to the first attendant, "No, he's had his already". Bleh.
Noisy moving chairs & sleeping (Score:5, Insightful)
Some of us can't sleep in planes or trains, you know.
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Er, no. Last flight I flew SYD->LAX left Sydney at midday. Sure, after lunch they dimmed the lights to try and adjust people to the time difference, but I wasn't fooled.
Flying LAX-> SYD I left at midday again, and arrived at Sydney 8.30pm at night. No overnight there! Actually it was a great flight, I was really adjusted when I got to Sydney - stayed up a few hou
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Okay, before anyone asks: (Score:5, Funny)
No, you cannot join the Mile High Club by taking your laptop with you to the bathroom and hitting the pr0n, no matter how much Cat5 you stuff into the carry-on for facilitating this.
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BATHROOM!! We'll that explains all of the grimacing faces around me.
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We Australians don't even understand that. Who puts a bath on a plane?
But will they address the cabin baggage limits?? (Score:1)
Re:But will they address the cabin baggage limits? (Score:2)
Re:But will they address the cabin baggage limits? (Score:3, Interesting)
Noone batted an eye, except for the security explosives screener who laughed, "Seven kilograms?!?" Normally I hate this an
Re:But will they address the cabin baggage limits? (Score:3, Interesting)
Carry-on diving equipment (Score:2)
ethernet vs wireless (Score:2)
I hope the wireless catches on now that my cell phone is wi-fi VOIP (http://cincinnatibell.com/consumer [cincinnatibell.com]
With Telstra like $0.15/MB additional usage fine? (Score:1)
In flight Quantas internet $60
Ticket to Australia $2000
Your face when you work out the price of $0.15/MB over 200 mb of usage
Priceless
http://my.bigpond.com/internetplans/broadband/cabl e/plans/ [bigpond.com]
voice? (Score:2, Interesting)
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Emirates (Score:2)
I gather Qantas are under a lot of pressure from Emirates [emirates.com] for popular Europe-Australia routes. Emirates have a young fleet with very good facilities - the best on-demand system I've seen anyway. Some people have complained that Emirates takes subsidies from the sheikhs of Dubai, although the Wikipedia page for Emirates [wikipedia.org] says that this is not the case.
Peter
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Delta took a subsidy from me when they wrote off all their common stock and re-issued "DAL New".
Airbus get subsidies from the EU, Boeing gets them from the US, I'm sure there is some level of preferential treatment for Quantas in
It's the way of life, and if the sheikhs feel fit to give money then that's their business.
If it is true, however, it's a bit shady to lie about it...
-nB
Bandwidth (Score:2)
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Interferences (Score:2)
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Great news (Score:2)
Didn't one airline already offer this for a short while, but they abandoned it because they didn't want terrorists to be able to communicate with the ground, or colleagues on other planes?
Also, why is Wi-Fi suddenly safe while we're not allowed to use cell phones on board?
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I believe 22km is the theoretical limit, so its certainly possible... but most calls on United Flight 93 were on the plane's built-in phones, and not cell phones... until the plane was at around 5,000ft, but they were flying over southeast PA, so maybe there were not many towers or they weren't transmitting with a lot of power...
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Now...for the technical reason (since most people can't comprehend altitude). When your on the ground, your cellphone sees 3-5 towers MAYBE (just enough to make a voice call). When your on a plane your cellphone can see upwards of 20 towers. W
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Hmmm. Some strange arguments here. It seems you're saying that the reason the airlines tell me to turn off my cell phone is because my battery would be drained too quickly, or the provider's network might be overloaded? That seems very unlikely. Surely that's my choice and/or the provider's business? Not to mention that I'm sure the GSM standard (or other cellular phone standard) has mechanisms to cope with situations like this without instantly overloading the entire network.
You go on to imply that this
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So in other words, you personally find it annoying when people answer mobile phones in your vicinity (if you don't want to know about my life, then stop listening in on my personal conversations!), and therefore you think they don't belong on any mode of transportation, ever, anywhere, and not only that, but you think that entitles you to assault people and vandalise their property? Wow. Judging from the style of your attack you're the type of person whom it would be completely useles
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I don't vandalize property. I remove people's capability to vandalize my enjoyment of what I
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Lufthansa was offering wireless on their long-haul flights for a while. Not sure if they are still doing it. The cost was around $30 per flight, which seemed a bit steep for the slow internet they offered.
Non-technical customer backlash? (Score:2)
FTA:
Qantas says it will offer wireless internet throughout the A380s -- even in economy -- as well as web and email access via seat-back inflight entertainment systems if you don't have a laptop with you.
I can only wonder if, having been "educated" that a cell phone turned on while in flight can bring the entire plane crashing down in flames, some customers might feel a slight bit uneasy when they see everyone firing up their laptops and connect
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Uptime, speed, etc.? (Score:2)
Internet and phone are the things I don't miss (Score:3, Interesting)
I like the fact that for 12 hours I'm out of communications and I can settle down and do what I want to do. I land, sync with the airport's WiFi and by the time I'm in the cab I'm responding to all those emails anyway, 30 minutes later I'm in the hotel and connected and the emails are all sent.
Lufthansa tried this a few years ago and then cancelled it because simply put the folks in business class (who would pay for this stuff) preferred to drink the nice wine, have a nice meal and have a sleep rather than browse the internet and get their emails.
Lufthansa was using Boeing's Connexion service? (Score:3, Informative)
I believe Lufthansa was happily using Boeing's Connexion service until it was withdrawn due to insufficient takeup [slashdot.org] by other carriers. Note that Lufthansa was quite happy with the service even though it cost almost a fortune to mod the 747-400. The service was slow but it provided web and email access from Angels 33 without problems. To those of us old enough to remember 33K modems and slower, the speed wasn't so much an issue (although some people's web design was).
The thing is for short flights, it wasn't particularly interesting. Most people can afford to be off net for a few hours, so unless you were doing coast to coast in the US, it wasn't that interesting. Australia has some quite long distance flights inside the country, let alone to Asia, North America or Europe. That would make some money.
Your Own P2P Network (Score:3, Interesting)
Imagine the RIAA trying to figure out how to stop it.
Not to mention chat with the lovely female in the next row up.
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Wouldn't be a problem for them, actually. The RIAA would just get Homeland Security to define "file sharing" as "terrorism", and then the TSA would have to search our laptop hard drives for any illegal songs.
International waters (Score:3, Interesting)
QoS (Score:2)
Leg Room (Score:2, Insightful)
Two problems with this in coach/economy:
Emirates are my favourite airline - great service and entertainment system.
congestion? (Score:2)
In my home the internet link is about 8 mbps, while my wireless is 54mbps. The same will hold in an airplane. Actually I doubt they will be able to get 8mpbs for the whole plane.
So congestion will not happen, unless there is an inflight content-server that becomes popular, or people d
August 2008? (Score:2)
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This is why (Score:2)
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You answered your own question.
tested and re-tested by airline technicians
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Also consider that Boing is an American company (Airbus is French and I've never flown the airbus planes so you may be right ab