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Comment by air7 | Hacker News Reader

> Surfing the internet at 35,000 feet is now something that we expect on flights.

Not only do I not expect this, I actually dread the time when it is ubiquitous and free. Flying is really a unique experience in that it forces you to sit still, disconnect and entertain yourself for a substantial period. This has a meditative element for me: I have time to not be updated, to gaze, to talk to strangers, to be bored... All the things people used to do in the long long ago. It gives flying a kind of sublime quality because it prepares me mentally for arriving at a completely different place than the one I left. It's not just a continuous Instagram fueled frenzy like any other day. Of course I can choose to not use my phone/internet at any time, but it's so much harder that it loses its entire allure: Instead of just disengaging I'm constantly fighting the urge and telling myself "No!". Once it's available on board I won't be able to resist.

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If you can’t disconnect on the ground I don’t see why spending a few hundred bucks to fly to a distant destination should be your lifeline to disconnecting. A plane ride was never intended to provide you with this service.

Everyone has different ways to spend their leisure time and that can include connecting. I wouldn’t want to impose my own beliefs on someone else by telling airlines not to give away WiFi.

And if you want to disconnect, there are plenty of ways to do so on the ground. You could go to a nice restaurant and leave your phone in the car. You could take a walk in the park with your phone at home. Or you could just not use Instagram or Facebook.

As it stands, few airlines will just give you WiFi for free anyway, but there have been times when its availability has saved my ass.

> If you can’t disconnect on the ground I don’t see why spending a few hundred bucks to fly to a distant destination should be your lifeline to disconnecting. A plane ride was never intended to provide you with this service.

The same logic applies to vacations. Someone saying they enjoyed something in a remote location does not mean that is unavailable locally - it's that you discovered it because you were in a different context.

Much like disconnecting while flying.

>If you can’t disconnect on the ground I don’t see why spending a few hundred bucks to fly to a distant destination should be your lifeline to disconnecting.

There is a difference between "disconnect" and disconnect.

> Of course I can choose to not use my phone/internet at any time, but it's so much harder that it loses its entire allure: Instead of just disengaging I'm constantly fighting the urge and telling myself "No!". Once it's available on board I won't be able to resist.

Sounds like you're struggling with addiction. Rather severe addiction.

I sorta get why this might work for you. I mean, if you're powerless to control your own behavior, but an external happenstance (like being stuck on a flight) forcibly breaks you away from it, then.. well, I can appreciate why you'd value that.

Still, it's weird to see an internal conflict being used to argue for external policy. By analogy, it'd be like the American government wanting to clamp down on global gasoline production to drive up gasoline prices to push American citizens toward electric vehicles. I mean, if the US were a monolithic entity with a consistent will, then it'd seem like it could just will itself into electric-vehicle adoption without such manipulation, but since the US isn't a monolithic entity with a singular, consistent will, parts of the US (e.g., the government) might take steps to limit the whole (e.g., by reducing its access to cheap gasoline) in order to gain leverage on other parts of the US (e.g., everyday citizens).

Likewise, it sounds like the executive part of your mind wants to limit your environment's Wi-Fi availability to gain leverage on parts of your mind that'd want to binge on Instagram.

Which I comment on just to frame the issue. It's harder to be sure on how to respond. I mean, in principle, I tend to feel that people should have self-control; that, if they want to break away from Instagram, then it's on them to do so rather than relying on environmental factors to forcibly break them away. But I wonder if that's perhaps too simplistic?

That sounds like a personal problem. :-) I hate droning along for 15 hours on an airplane and I look forward to WiFi being a ubiquitous offering. I can find things to do, or people to communicate with, to make the monotony more bearable.

Yep the worst flights I've been on are the cross country ones where I know my battery is low, there's no in seat AC outlet, and there's no wifi. Six hours of just staring at the seat in front of me, joy.

Buy a Kindle? I always use long flights as a great excuse to catch up on my reading.

To be completely frank, it sounds like you have a problem and your ideal solution would be to create a different problem for everyone else. If you were an alcoholic, would you support a ban on liquor sales in your locality?

I don't think he's suggesting a ban or anything like that, just raising a valid point about losing the connection from other people who are not in one's own bubble?

I think you are emphasising my point by your adverse reaction to someone who doesn't agree with you?

If you want this go on a cruise for a week and disconnect yourself. Don’t buy the WiFi package, tell everyone you’re in the middle of an ocean, gone.

I don’t get why people treat flying so ceremoniously; it’s a glorified bus ride. I still got shit to do, and I need access to resources. It is a waste of time to burn 6 hours when flying cross country for nothing. I could get a lot done in that time.

Cruises come with a lot more baggage than just disconnecting yourself for a week.

A cheaper way would be to just go camping.

I agree with parent, planes are a great space to focus for me. I don't think there's anywhere else that I've done so much heavy reading. The lack of connection and the white noise of the engines make it the perfect place to zone in (or zone out!).

I travel for work 20 years, 6-7 internationals per year (or more) and I can tell you 1) its not always cross country and 2) sleep is possibly the most important thing you can do, if you need to move timezones and be alert and working when you get there.

I do work in the air. I've had other passengers complain about my keyboard volume. I also now pace it, police it and don't try to over-do it: The spam-can is not condusive to good work outcomes always. Its ok for reading and reflection, and oftentimes they don't depend on connectivity.

> Don’t buy the WiFi package

I've been on two cruises, and in both cases, the WiFi was ridiculously expensive. Like...$1.00/minute expensive.

Which makes no sense that they'd charge per minute and not per megabyte.

Even the WiFi package didn't mean you got unlimited WiFi, it just got you a bulk discount on minutes.

It also sounds like a mostly American thing. I fly several times a year and I am yet to be on a flight with any form of Wi-Fi available, it's quite exotic to me stil.

I think it's more a not-American thing. Norwegian and Emirates have free WiFi, along with several other non-US airlines.

It's only free in business on SAS, BA, Air France and many, many others.

https://www.edreams.com/blog/in-flight-wifi/

My experience with Emirates wifi has been terrible though even when paying.

I flew to South Africa in October. My flight from Amsterdam to Johannesburg had free messaging. On my ipad I could use google hangouts, whatsapp, email and google drive. I was chatting with my wife in Hungary and my daughters in the US for the whole flight. It was amazing. I also got some work done. This was a KLM flight.

Have some discipline and don't use it. Let the rest of us have it.

There’s an irony in your response.

My boss expects me to work on flights with my 15" Macbook Pro, economy seat, and poor WiFi to use SaaS applications. My productivity is dramatically less but that's when I have the most downtime.

Does your boss pay for business or first class? Using a laptop in a coach seat these days is highly awkward.

Edit: Oops, you did say economy. Have another passenger take a photo of you typing on a 15 inch laptop in economy to share with your boss. I literally can't do it...the seat in front of me prevents the screen from opening enough to be visible.

I'd have to put the keyboard on my chest, the screen flat on the tray table, and do T-Rex style typing.

Especially a 15” laptop. I can’t do it and I’m not that big.

Sounds like you need a new boss, not a lack of WiFi on airplanes.

> it forces you to sit still, disconnect and entertain yourself for a substantial period.

This observation is biased by your own opinion. Even without Wi-fi, it is already typical to have inflight digital entertainment... and for most people, long haul flights without distraction can amount to quite the ordeal. And of course, what about the professional, and what about families with kids that are more likely would cause a nuisance without being distracted?

That's fine for short haul or business class but if you're squashed into a seat seemingly designed with a child's dimensions in mind for half a day, Wi-fi is the opiate that makes flying bearable.

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