United to offer in-flight e-mail on all U.S. flights CHICAGO (AP) =97 Get Message: Inflight e-mail and instant messaging are= about=20 to become fixtures of the U.S. skies. Hoping to get a jump on the=20 competition in the scramble for business travelers, United Airlines plans=20 to be the first commercial carrier to offer two-way e-mail capability=20 aboard all its domestic flights. By the end of the year, passengers on all= =20 flights will be able to plug their laptops into jacks on the Verizon=20 Airfone handsets, which will use technology by Tenzing Communications of=20 Seattle to transmit e-mails. United has offered JetConnect service on a=20 trial basis on some 767 domestic aircraft since December =97 charging $5.99= =20 per flight for instant messaging, one-way text messaging and select news,=20 weather and other information. It is now expanding to JetConnect with=20 e-mail, which increases the cost to $15.98 but enables passengers to send=20 and receive e-mail, including attachments. Another 10 cents will be added for each kilobyte of data over 2 kilobytes.= =20 John Tague, United's executive vice president for customer initiatives,=20 said the expanded offering illustrates the airline's focus on adding=20 products and services that are "useful, affordable and in line with what=20 travelers are asking for.""The availability of e-mail is critical to=20 business flyers," added Bill Fallone, president of Verizon Airfone.United=20 isn't first with the e-skies concept. Lufthansa, Japan Airlines, British=20 Airways and Scandinavian Airlines System are all trying out or have=20 committed to using a satellite high-speed Internet service offered by=20 Connexion by Boeing this year. United and several other airlines, including= =20 American and Delta, committed in 2001 to buy the service by Connexion, a=20 competitor to Seattle-based Tenzing, which also now counts Cathay Pacific=20 and Virgin Atlantic among its customers. But the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist= =20 attacks scrapped those plans, when the drop in air travel demand forced=20 carriers into a fight for their survival.Airline consultant Michael Boyd,=20 president of the Boyd Group in Evergreen, Colo., hailed the move by United,= =20 which is restructuring in federal bankruptcy court after losing millions of= =20 dollars and many of its passengers."I don't know about the average person=20 sitting down and spending 20 bucks to send e-mails to Mama," Boyd said.=20 "But it shows some innovation happening over at United. Maybe the real=20 message is that United is thinking of new ways of doing business." *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.carib-link.net/naparima/naps.html TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************