I’m currently on an Etihad flight from Manchester to Abu Dhabi and am loving in-flight WiFi access. While Virgin Australia and Qantas continue with excuses as to why they cannot offer this, airlines like Etihad, Emirates, Delta and American Airlines have offered in-flight WiFi for years.
When booking, I give preference to airlines with in-flight WiFi. I place WiFi access ahead of in-flight catering and even, in some cases, seat amenity.
I travel a lot and being able to stay on top of work while away is important. Indeed, it makes for more enjoyable travel. With 24 hours of flying back to Australia I don’t want to lose a day catching up when I get home. Hence the decision to fly Etihad this trip.
Sitting here and enjoying WiFi I am also thinking about changes in and around my newsagency business that I may not have embraced and that may cause shoppers to choose other retailers. I don’t want to be a business owner who discovers a trend when it is too late.
While I understand some people like to disconnect fro the world, others don’t. For them, in-flight WiFi is a valuable point of difference. It is hard to know what is a valuable point of difference to people – but we just keep searching for it and tinkling about it.