Delta Begins In-Flight Wi-Fi Rollout (and It's Free Until Next Year)

Delta said it was coming before 2009, and it's looking like it's actually managed to pull it off. The struggling airline is indicating that most of its most commonly used shuttle craft between New York, Boston, and Washington D.C. are currently being upgraded to offer in-flight Wi-Fi -- and it'll even be free until the end of the year.

The service, provided by Aircell, will be $9.95 on flights less than three hours and $12.95 for anything longer. These short flights will all fit into the former category, just the beginning of the system-wide roll-out that Delta wants to put in place next year.

However, that expansion will be dealt an early blow next year as Delta replaces many of those shuttle flights with contract carriers that don't offer such fancy features. In other words, we're still not quite to the point where mid-air surfing is standard fare, but we're getting close.