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

[Yvan256]

The history of every major galactic civilisation has passed through three distinct and recognisable phases: those of survival, inquiry, and sophistication. Otherwise known as the 'How', 'Why', and 'Where' phases.

For instance, the first phase is characterised by the question: "How can we eat?" The second by the question: "Why do we eat?" And the third by the question: "Where should we have lunch?"

Re:Not surprising

[ArsenneLupin]

It cost $10 a day for bandwidth that was none too awesome.

Wifi at airports is free. If you are paying for it, you're doing it wrong.

Here's how to do it:

1. Start tcpdump -en
2. Carefully note Ip addresses and corresponding mac addresses that fly by
3. ifconfig wlan0 hw ether macAddress
4. ifconfig wlan0 ip netmask netmask
5. route add default gw router (router's ip can usually be guessed from IP)
6. enjoy your free connectivity!

Re:Not surprising

[contrapunctus]

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.

Is this Maslow? Are you trying to push your pyramid of needs again?

(dear mods, this is a joke, feel free to look it up)

Re:Not surprising

[WSOGMM]

A very relevant day to post this. Don't forget your towel. :D

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 ..

Re:restrooms ?

[Norsefire]

You can make do without restrooms but hiding behind large objects doesn't get you wifi access.

Lunch vs Cabling

[saterdaies]

Personally, I find it easier to pack food to bring with me than an ethernet cord long enough to get from my cable modem to the airport.

But that's just me.

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!"

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.

Who doesnt have a tethering phone by now?

[LibertineR]

I stopped caring about airport wi-fi the day I gave up the iphone for the Blackberry Storm. I know a lot of people dont like the Storm, but it tethers like nobodys business.

My next toy will be to setup Microsoft's Direct Access replacement for VPN's and I will never be disconnected from my network. When more people become aware of Direct Access, that is going to put a dent in those who say they cant innovate in Redmond. This is some bad-ass technology.

Wifi should be 100% free in airports.

[Jason Quinn]

I absolutely hate how many US airports don't provide free Wifi for travelers (free Wifi seems to be more common abroad). For a minuscule fraction of their budget, airports could provide an invaluable service. It must change.

Re:Could we get a "duh" tag?

[oldspewey]

In my experience (generally 20+ business trips per year) there is usually a decent restaurant or two somewhere in most airports - especially the newer ones. Of course sometimes the "good" restaurant is in a completely different concourse from where your flight is departing, and the prices tend to be pretty high.

Case in point: the new Indianapolis airport. I was pleasantly surprised at the food quality in the 500 Grill, where I had a tuna steak cooked to order on a bed of greens ... and incidentally Indy airport has free wifi but it's pretty slow.

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".

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.

Re:Well Duh

[whiledo]

I suspect it was internet based...

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.