thesis
my opinion on using wifi on a plane has shifted. i do not think it is the right default for everyone in every situation, but when i am traveling alone, especially for work, i have started to treat a connected cabin as a feature. it takes hours that used to feel like pure waiting, time i was just trying to burn through, and turns them into a stretch where i can work with a surprisingly solid level of focus and relatively few distractions.
context
a few weeks ago i wrote about how torn i still was on this topic in plane wifi: when the cabin forced disconnect. that piece was an honest inventory of the tradeoffs. this one is an update from the other side of the choice, after i have spent more flights actually buying the pass and sitting down to work instead of debating it.
argument
when i am alone and the trip is for my job, the row stops feeling like a cage and starts feeling like a quiet room with bad legroom. i already have headphones in, so the cabin noise is under control. notifications are fewer than at my desk, nobody is making noise by my office door, and the margin of "things i could be doing instead" feels narrower. it is not peace and it is not deep rest, but it is a usable kind of concentration.
i am now using that block to write, to debug, to plan, and to close loops i would otherwise push to after i land. i go in knowing i will get a meaningful amount done, and that expectation makes the clock feel less stuck. the time still passes at the same speed, but it passes with output attached, and that changes how it feels in my body.
i also have a concrete proof point that this mode is not just talk. i completely stood up my personal website while airborne, end to end, in one of those sessions. right now i am on a plane again, getting ahead for an in-person meeting so i can walk in prepared instead of scrambling on the jet bridge.
tension or counterpoint
i am not arguing that every person should pay for wifi on every flight. shared trips, family logistics, the middle seat, motion sickness, or the simple need to be offline are all good reasons to skip it. economy is still a bad default office for anyone who needs space or quiet that the cabin cannot give. my point is narrower. for me, in the situations where it fits, the cost of the pass is cheaper than the opportunity cost of treating the whole flight as lost time.
closing
i will probably still sometimes want the cabin to be an excuse to be unreachable. when i do, i can leave the wifi off. when i do not, i am glad the option exists, and i am using it on purpose.
further reading
- in-flight connectivity, background on how internet reaches aircraft