Survey Finds Airport Wi-Fi More Important Than Food

Ninjakicks writes "For the business traveler (and the traveler in general, really), Wi-Fi is important — crucial, even. But more important than sustenance? That's exactly what was found in a recent survey by American Airlines and HP, where some 47% of business travelers responded that Wi-Fi was the most important airport amenity, outscoring basic travels needs such as food by nearly 30 percent."

Comments

Not surprising

[Tridus]

Airport food is expensive and usually bad. It's much easier to pack a lunch or just eat when you arrive then it is to pack a WiFi base station.

Re:Not surprising

[an.echte.trilingue]

I disagree. Airport food is usually pretty good, although it is way too expensive. Also, trying to get a nice meal (which, for me, usually includes drinks and sauces or yogurt) through security is not that easy.

I think this has more to do with a pyramid of needs. Once you have enough sleep, you think about water. Once you have enough water, you think about nutrition. Once you have enough nutrition, you think about the food tasting good, and so on.

What this survey means is that airports are meeting those basic needs well enough that people can think about things that are higher up on the pyramid but not adequately provided, not that those things lower on the pyramid are actually that important.

Imagine for a moment that airports suddenly removed all of the bathrooms. Where do you think Wifi would rank on the next survey?

Re:Not surprising

[Brian Gordon]

Also travellers are used to being burned by airports without Wifi but they've never seen an airport without something to eat. It's natural that they'd complain about the former.

Re:Not surprising

[gilbert644]

That's called stealing.

Re:Not surprising

[Krneki]

Considering how easy is to get a terrorist tag this days I'm not sure if I want to hack an Airport network, especially in UK or US of A.

Re:Not surprising

[an.echte.trilingue]

And just how do you know what my diet is like? I literally have not had fast food in years. As a vegetarian, those places have very little to offer me.

And what is this mythical "Mediterranean diet" that you are referring to? I have lived in Italy, and Spain and Morocco. I have spent significant time in Greece, Croatia, Israel, southern France and Algeria. They all border the Med and the all have very different cuisine. Of them all, Italian is probably the worst for your health, despite what you seem to think (one big meal per day instead of several small ones, lots of cheese, high in sugar, etc). Oh, and they all have more overweight people and shorter lifespans than my current home, Belgium.

So how about instead of being an arrogant stereotyping prig, you go learn a little bit?

Re:Not surprising

[laughingcoyote]

That's called stealing.

That's called silly. What are you stealing? Are they going to run out of packets more quickly that way?

It is cracking, and certainly one can call into question the ethics of cracking into a network when you clearly know you are not supposed to be accessing it. One can also question the ethics of charging outrageously more for wifi than it costs to set it up and run it. One can also make a good case that the network is not meant to be closed to the public, it's simply meant to be paywalled, and so bypassing that paywall is not invading anyone's privacy. So even the ethical question is not as clear cut as you might think at first.

Regardless, however, words have meanings. Stealing is taking something away from you that's exclusive (you and I can't both have it) without your consent. It's not a synonym for "conduct I dislike" or "conduct I find unethical".

restrooms ?

[Dolphinzilla]

restrooms would be my number one airport amenity ..

People care about what has given them trouble

[SirLoadALot]

The people answering the survey recognize -- apparently better than the people who looked at the results -- that every airport has some food in it, but not every airport has acceptable Wi-Fi. No one answering the survey was thinking "I'd rather starve on the net than feast without it!"

Re:People care about what has given them trouble

[greed]

If I'm on the 'net, I can order food....

Gotta love surveys

[Gothmolly]

"a recent survey by American Airlines and HP"....

I bet "a recent survey by American Airlines and Pizza Hut" would have come to the opposite conclusion.

Airport food sucks

[Vinegar Joe]

In almost all western counties.........but check out Changi in Singapore. A GREAT airport. You don't get ripped off the food is fantastic!

http://www.changiairport.com/changi/en/index.html

Sign of internet addiction?

[petes_PoV]

Surely it's possible for an individual to spend a few hours away from an internet connection?

Even for a "business" user, you should be well enough organised that your employer can afford to be out of touch with you for a short period, without suffering catastrophic business failure (if not, they should fire you immediately as you are obviously a single point of failure and as such a total liability to the organisation).

If you do suffer symptoms of stress or anxiety when disconnected from the 'net this sounds a lot like a personality disorder - even if you do use the old line: "No, really, I just like the internet. I could give up any time".

Re:Sign of internet addiction?

[AxeMan15]

It is not about need but about choice.

Being in an airport is not like hanging out at the local park. There are no birds singing or fresh gentle breezes caressing your face. It's many people milling about with the accompanying background noise, Homeland Security Threat Level "Orange" (has this ever changed?) and passenger Thelma Jones, get to your flight or you are S.O.L.

I fly once every 3 weeks or so and I carry only my laptop, my book and a magazine. I find it difficult to read for pleasure within the airport. With an Internet connection, I can get some things done like pay bills, email Mom, view Slashdot or see if my epic item sold at the AH :)

Yes, I could wait. I could sit at an airport and watch CNN while little Jimmy round around his exhausted parents, waiting for my delayed by 2hrs connecting flight.

I prefer something else.

Re:I can bring food

[drinkypoo]

Water is essential to life. Not allowing you to bring your own is preposterous. Make the owner bring it in a clear bottle and drink some before the flight if you are paranoid. It's simple economic protectionism.

Electrical outlets

[Vadim Makarov]

is the second most important thing. I'd even say it's the first one: I can live without internet, but to work offline I need to charge the laptop.

At most airoports a few outlets in the waiting areas are at best inconveniently located (being designed for plugging cleaning machines rather than for traveller's use), and at worst unavailable. I've spent more than a few strolls down the halls trying to find a free outlet and a seat withing the reach of it.

Re:Electrical outlets

[seinman]

Want to be the most popular guy at the airport? Throw a plug strip in your laptop bag. After turning two plugs into seven, all the tech addicts on the flight were buying me drinks. Good times.

Next survey: BEER is more important than airport

[tomhudson]

It's like those studies that found out that, under the right circumstances, EVERYTHING causes cancer in lab rats.

All the airport food is going to do (by its' high price and low quality) is remind you that you're STUCK IN A DAMN AIRPORT.

In a related survey - "70% of people surveyed prefered New Coke - the other 30% chose airport food, broken glass, or suicide." It all depends on how you ask the question.

This may be true for business people..

[wilgibson]

... but when you traveling for the hell of it and have been stuck in the same airport for a day decent food becomes way more important that wifi and internet access.

Let me get this straight...

[Telephone Sanitizer]

An airline conducted a study by emailing a tiny subset of their frequent fliers and inviting them to get online to take a survey...

The results showed that of those users who got online and took the survey a clear majority thought that being able to get online was very important.

Oh, and incidentally, AA has upgraded their infrastructure and while it's almost too trivial to mention, WiFi is being deployed at their hubs, in-flight Internet is being trialled on their international flights and power-jacks for laptops are available in business-class and first-class... but those people who authorized those projects don't need to justify it with some bogus study.

Really. This is hard science.

Really.

(^_^)

Ranking right after

[megas]

*freaking* Power Supplies!!

It's amazing how many recently built terminals lack power supplies near the gates.

Anyone say "air"? Re:Well Duh

[Forge]

This result is actually not surprising. Note that "air" doesn't even make the list.

Food is available in virtually every terminal of nearly all airports. It's no big deal because you always have it.

By contrast many Airports do not have WiFi and of those that do, many attempt to charge for the service.

So when you open your Laptop in Fort Lauderdale and see skype connected right away, it feels like a big deal. I don't know about other people but since this year I have chosen 2 flights that stop in FLL over comparable flights which stop in MIA, because of the Internet access.

Granted on one of those flights the price of the ticket was far lower but on the other I actually payed $5 more and spent 90 minutes extra in the airport.

As any Slashdoter can attest a 5 hour wait with internet is a lot shorter than a 3 1/2 hour wait without it.