How Free Wi-Fi Can Help Cure the Holiday Travel Delay Blues

Face it: you're going to get stuck somewhere this holiday season. That's already happening to friends of mine, who are (at this writing) waiting for an alternative flight to New York City since their first flight was cancelled because of rain. Smart travelers expect delays and pack accordingly with books, PCs, and iPods to pass the dreary time.

That time is getting a little less dreary this holiday season, though, as airports, airlines and hotels are all lowering their rates on Wi-Fi. Many are offering Wi-Fi access for free - and unlimited Internet is a great boredom cure, even if all you're doing is Tweeting about your boredom. (Contact me at @saschasegan on Twitter.)

Here's a rundown of the latest free Wi-Fi offerings for travelers.

Airports

Google has gotten plenty of buzz this holiday season by supplying free Wi-Fi to 47 airports through Jan. 15, 2010. Go to www.freeholidaywifi.com for the list of airports, which includes many major cities.

But don't forget that plenty of airports have free Wi-Fi anyway. Kayak's TravelPost site lists dozens of airports that have free Wi-Fi, including popular destination airports like Oakland, Orlando, and San Diego.

New York City is a painful exception to the free Wi-Fi rule. You're only guaranteed to get lucky if you're in JFK's terminal 5, where the free Wi-Fi is supplied by JetBlue.

Some airports are also running JiWire's "surprise" free hotspot deal -- see "Cities" below.

Even if you manage to log on for free, though, forget about streaming Hulu. You get what you pay for. Many of these free Wi-Fi networks are overpriced and congested, with speeds more like dialup than like broadband.

Most airports also have a faster pay Wi-Fi network too. Many of those are associated with Boingo (www.boingo.com), a subscription service which will charge you $7.95 per 24 hours or $9.95/month for unlimited use. Boingo aggregates thousands of for-pay hotspots, including all Starbucks and McDonald's, so it's worth it to pay for a month if you think you'll use it more than once.

Airplanes

Wi-Fi is slowly spreading on US flights, and three airlines have decided to spread some cheer this holiday season.

Virgin America is making their Wi-fi free in every seat, on every plane (google.virginamerica.com), up through January 15, 2010 thanks to Google.

Delta is offering a stingier deal. On their flights with WiFi -- which isn't all of them -- they'll offer it free only from Nov. 24-30, and you'll be routed through eBay's home page first.

AirTran isn't offering their WiFi truly for free (www.airtran.com/wifi/gogo.aspx), but if you pay $12.95 for Wi-Fi on one flight, you'll get it free on your return trip provided your first flight is before Dec. 31 and you return before Jan. 31.

Cities

Do you like surprises? The holidays are all about surprises. JiWire and Microsoft are offering a free Wi-Fi surprise. They intend to give thousands of people free Wi-Fi through the end of the year, but they won't tell anyone where to get it. You have to try to log in at one of JiWire's "premier venues," including various airports, Starbucks and many hotel chains (the full list is here: www.jiwire.com/partner/showcase) and look for a Microsoft Bing link on your log-in page. If you see the link and then do a search on Bing, you'll get your Wi-Fi for free.

The JiWire/Microsoft free Wi-Fi deal extends to "thousands" of hotspots, a JiWire rep told me, but they refuse to say exactly which ones. You just have to keep an eye peeled.

JiWire also runs the best registry of always-free Wi-Fi hotspots (http://v4.jiwire.com/search-hotspot-locations.htm), which you can use either online or through an iPhone app. Their finder located several free hotspots right near my office in New York City, including a public library, a gym, and a hotel.

The large number of free Wi-Fi hotspots in New York City makes Yahoo!'s announcement that they're offering Wi-Fi in Times Square a lot less impressive, by the way. It's just one more intersection in a connected city.

Finally, if you are a T-Mobile or AT&T smartphone owner, you may have Wi-Fi access built into your service plan. (Call 611 and ask.) AT&T's list is here (http://www.att.com/gen/general?pid=13540) and T-Mobile's is here (https://content.hotspot.t-mobile.com/AssetProcess.asp?asset=com.default.main.001). Both carriers offer service at Starbucks, and T-Mobile also has Barnes & Noble and Kinko's stores.

Do you know of other great free Wi-Fi tricks? Talk with fellow Frommer's travelers in our Cameras, Phones, and Gadgets Forum today.