I’ll admit it: I’ve become a little bit obsessed with getting free wifi on airplanes. It’s not because I don’t think paying for wifi on planes is worth it — it is… sometimes. My problem is that JetBlue has found a way to offer free wifi to all of its passengers, Southwest charges $5 for theirs, and the big guys (AA/United/Delta) seem totally content charging massive amounts of money for the same service. Why am I paying $20 on one airline when another costs 25% (or 0%) as much?!!? It’s not like the quality is that much different. The idea that I have to pay more because I’m a captive on a metal tube makes me angry. Which I why I’ve been hunting for free airplane wifi solutions for a while now.

I wrote about this great Gogo hack a little while ago (still worked as of my last flight!) and while it’s not perfect, it’s still incredibly useful if you just want to get about five minutes of emailing done and you don’t mind doing it on your phone. Now I’ve come across a much less sketchy way to get free internet while flying.

Amazon is selling this Acer Chromebook for $250 and it just so happens to come with 12 free Gogo in-flight wifi sessions. With those sessions going for an estimated $15 a piece (the estimation is mine), that means you’re getting $180 in free wifi for spending $250, so the computer’s really only costing $70. This is directly from the Amazon product page:

Now, is the computer any good? At $70, it doesn’t have to be. It just has to work. There’s a chance those wifi codes are just valid for 30 minutes or an hour, but the listing doesn’t say. If you’re interested in pursuing this, I advise you to contact Amazon, Acer, or Gogo to find out exactly what the offer entails. I’m just here to show you a good deal when I find one. Cheers.