Tokyo again, and what I like to do on planes

I'm heading back to Tokyo tomorrow to work on a radio show with the crew from PRI's Studio360, so I probably won't be blogging until I get there.

When are we going to have wi-fi on trans-Pacific flights? But then again, would I want that? I kinda cherish the offline time—nap, read a book, listen to podcasts, nap, watch a movie, eat, brush teeth, pee. Airplanes make me want to do not much more than all that.

Comments

[Joey]

OH my god.

I never want to fly to Japan in economy class ever again.
Sure, ANA's in-flight video system is amazing, but...

Well, I'm 6'4", so that always puts a damper on things.

[Jeff]

There used to be wi-fi on trans-pacific flights. I used it a couple of times. There wasn't enough business to support it and the plug was pulled industry-wide. The big problem for me is that I only got about 3 hours of battery life, and there are no outlets in economy class, so it was kind of pointless to pay extra for the wi-fi. (You don't think any airline's gonna give it away for free, do you??)

It'll come back at some point, now that battery life is getting better, and hopefully implementing it will be cheaper.

Joey: You gotta show up 3 hours early and ask for the exit row. I do that every time. It's like flying in first class, sorta.

My worst flight to (actually from) Japan was actually on ANA, on a plane that was obviously a substitute because it was outfitted for short-haul flights. No entertainment system at all! No GPS, no nothing. It was like flying 20 years ago but without the in-flight movie and with modern-day seat pitch. Horrible!

Other flights on ANA have been great.

[vagrant]

The latency would drive me crazy if I tried to work via CLI. FTP and a GUI E-mail client would work fine and not care about the pace. Although, I'm sure the throughput would be very limited. I also think people would complain about their connection and make things worse for flight attendants who might take it out on everyone else.

Anyways, it is nice to disconnect and the PSP/DSLite are there to keep me company. Plus the headset keeps me sane by not listening to chatty passengers, or crying babies.

[L00kingGlass]

My economy class flight experience with ANA between SFO/NRT has been excellent, provided that it was a single sampling point and I have a small frame. In fact, my travel companion forgot to retrieve a personal item when disembarking at NRT, and ANA's staff was able to locate the item and made arrangement for the item to be picked up on our return to NRT 2 weeks later. Kudo to ANA's staff for going that extra kilometer.

[pirikara]

Oooh PRI? Cool~~ what's the story topic?? Can't wait to hear it. =)

[Nobita]

Cool :) Been a fan of Studio 360 for a while now. Good luck!

[Pon-chyan]

Going to my favorite city to work with one of my favorite radio shows! I'm so jealous!