Windows Phone Thoughts: Continental Airlines to Offer Onboard E-Mail

"Continental Airlines Inc. (NYSE:CAL - news) said on Thursday it would begin offering in-flight e-mail services to passengers for a fee next month. The announcement by the No. 5 U.S. airline comes several days after bankrupt United Airlines, the No. 2 U.S. carrier, said it would begin offering e-mail access to travelers by the end of the year. United, a unit of UAL Corp. (OTC BB:UALAQ.OB - news), has said it will bear no costs and expects a new revenue stream from the service. Both airlines will use Airfone JetConnect, a product of Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - news), for their onboard e-mail services.

Passengers previously could read news, play games and send text messages through JetConnect but did not have two-way e-mail capability, Continental spokeswoman Julie King said. King said Continental will charge about $15 per flight for the service, competitive with United's $15.98 rate. Continental aims to have the new service installed on its Boeing 757 fleet by mid-July and on its narrow-body fleet by the fall, King said."

$15 doesn't sound too bad - but I notice it doesn't say "flat rate", so I wonder if they're doing some "magic math" with that number. ie: "The average customer will send & review 20 email messages during the course of the flight, at 10 KB per message, and we'll charge them $15 for that". I sure hope not! 8O