Wi-Fi is becoming more and more available while traveling. Yesterday I flew back from Frankfurt where my family and I had been on a river cruise and there was even Wi-Fi on the plane.  That’s a first for me.  It was a Lufthansa flight.  Good on you, Lufthansa.

I didn’t use the Wi-Fi because I had so little space. The man in front of me put his seat so far back that there was no room for my laptop on the tray table.  The monitor on the seatback was about six inches from my face. It was an older plane that still had seats that actually went back a substantial amount. Bad on you, Lufthansa. Actually I should have asked the man to put up his seat but didn’t want any conflict at the time so I just put up with it.  So maybe it should be bad on me.

The seats are tight as usual on airlines these days and with that seat back into my space, I was seriously cramped.  However, just knowing Wi-Fi was available made it all worthwhile.  Plane flights can be so long, and it will be nice to be able to work on them and use the time for business or study in the future.  It really made my day, knowing the change was on its way and, in Lufthansa’s case, already here.  Here is the information about Lufthansa’s Wi-Fi.  You still have to pay for it, but you used to have to pay for Wi-Fi at coffee houses like Starbucks, so I imagine it will eventually be free and available on all flights.

Most airports now have free Wi-Fi. Calgary, Montreal, and Vancouver had free Wi-Fi on this trip, although Montreal’s didn’t work well during our layover there.

Vancouver’s and Calgary’s were moderately fast and reliable. Paris and Munich also had free Wi-Fi that worked fine. Frankfurt had only 30 minutes of free Wi-Fi. I was surprised at the time limitation. In the states, I’ve used free Wi-Fi in the Portland, Seattle, Orange County, Las Vegas, Long Beach, and Burbank airports. I think it is pretty standard in North America.

Here is a photo of our cruise ship with Grand Circle, the Bizet:

The Wi-Fi on river cruises is also getting better since the last time I was in Europe. The last time, five years ago, there was no Wi-Fi on the boat we were on the Princess de Provence when Peter Deilmann river cruises were still available. There was one desktop computer that only worked in port. I was awaiting my first grandson’s birth and so wanted the connection.

This trip there was Wi-Fi on the cruises but so slow and spotty it was difficult to do much uploading of photos or anything more than email and a bit of Facebook, but at least it was there. We went on two river cruises. One with Grand Circle’s Bizet on the Seine from Paris to Ruone. And one on the Main in Germany from Nuremberg to Frankfort with Viking. The Viking Freya’s Wi-Fi worked better but was still slow. The Freya also had two laptops for guest use.

I think almost every hotel has Wi-Fi, usually free for guests. I try not to stay in hotels where you have to pay since I need Wi-Fi so much for my business.

At Ducktoes Computer Services we can help you set up and use Wi-Fi for your travels and show you a secure way of doing it.

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