I retired from personal blogging in July 2008.
But you can find me over at http://blog.xero.com.
It happened!
Caught a flight to Auckland yesterday. In the Wellington Koru lounge was an invite to grab a free userid and password for wifi access.
Could Air New Zealand have worked out that this is an expected feature of any world class lounge? Like power and water?
Even better, have they realized the goodwill it creates by providing this for free? I would have expected a carrier would have locked it up and made people pay $10 for the access that in reality would only be a quick 20 min email check. As providing this service would probably only cost a couple of 100 bucks a week, that would have been offensive but been better than no access
Flying home, more of the puzzle was revealed. They had a different instruction sheet in the Auckland lounge that directed the user to not use the Auckland International Airport Limited (AIAL) hotspot as that would not be free.
So I suspect there are big politics at work here. AIAL has disgracefully held up wifi in the airport for years. I assume because they thought there was some value they could rort out. I say disgraceful as the lack of wifi just stuns visitors from overseas who arrive from a 12 hour flight and can’t check their messages. Are we a knowledge economy or not. It’s disgraceful because of the millions of dollars in lost productivity forced on domestic travelers who can’t use the lounge downtime.
Questions
- Is free wifi here to stay in the lounges?
- Is it international as well? Auckland and LAX?
- Where is Telecom in all of this?
- What will AIAL do next?
Kudos to Air New Zealand. 3 years late but finally you’ve got it.
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Woohoo! I’m off to Auckland next week so will give it a shot (if it’s still free!)
It’s good news but astounding it wasn’t done earlier (by either party). Koru Lounge (or business travellers if AIAL) = Posh Customers (generally) = Money (generally). Good service = Loyalty = Money (generally).
People fighting over pennies. A shame.
Free internet in lounges is surprisingly not that common. We travel frequently through German hubs into the US, Japan and the UK. In most lounges we have to pay to get into the internet, and it’s an unexpected pleasure when a lounge does have free access. Our T-mobile accounts take a beating when we’re on the road, and even some of the better hotels don’t have free access.
In Dubai we’ve just received news that free wifi is now being installed at Dubai Int Airport across the Arrival and Departure areas - so some airports that are judged to be among the best in the world are still coming to terms with the level of internet services.
I largely pick my hotels on the base of if they offer free internet or not. I don’t care if I have to pay a little bit more or not, but it means that they at least care. Luckily even the most dodgy hotel in the US these days offers this functionality for free as they realize it is expected. So far I’m dissapointed at airports and think that it is poor service and will keep using my phone for internet rather then spending the money on a hotspot.
Three years too late indeed, Wifi is available in a lot of bars, cafes and restaurants here in London for free and has been for the last couple of years at least.
Hi
The wifi at Auckland Airport is provided by HP to the airport company, and it happens to penetrate the Koru lounge. Quietly available, yet to be marketed. At Intl but not LAX :-)
Telecom are gagging to offer Xtra Wireless in the lounges. But there are greater politics at play…
I was dismayed to find that I had to pay at Auckland domestic terminal. I just wanted to check my mail and not pay $10 for an hour. So I didn’t bother in the end - we really are lagging now in NZ.
Here in Vancouver free hotspots are all over in coffee houses etc. How could a cafe even think about charging? The local government is even talking about city wide free coverage.
No need for that wifi. as long as you have a 3g vodafone nz mobile. just pair it with your bluetooth enabled laptop. create a dialup networking on your bluetooth software. leave username and password blank then input *99***1# as your dialup number. It’s free! i don’t get charged for using it for 5 months now. but be sure you are on a prepay service, just to be sure that you wouldn’t really get charged in the future.