Seattle travelers were pretty excited to learn last night that Alaska Airlines planned to bring free wifi to Sea-Tac airport for a three month promotion this Spring. Too bad it won't be happening.
Alaska Airlines today said that a company representative misspoke when she announced at a panel discussion last night that the Seattle airline planned to sponsor free wifi at Washington state's largest airport. The initial announcement -- reported here on TechFlash -- was applauded by travel writers and attendees at the Seattle Consortium of Online Travel.
"WiFi at the gate at SeaTac starting next week, courtesy of www.airalaska.com. Brilliant... guarantees I will fly Alaska," wrote Buzz Bruggeman on Twitter shortly after he heard the announcement. Readers of this blog were equally excited.
"Very excited to hear Sea-Tac is getting this," wrote one reader. After the panel and the remarks, I spoke to the Alaska marketing manager as well as a company spokeswoman in order to make sure that I had all of the details on what appeared to be an innovative service in Seattle.
Alaska does plan to begin offering free wifi at the Oakland airport next week as part of a larger promotion, but Sea-Tac is not part of the plan, said spokesman Paul McElroy.
"We just misspoke," said McElroy.
The airline is going ahead with its free wifi trial on a 737-700, but for now those stuck at the gate will still have to fork over $7.95 for a 24-hour pass.
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