If you search for the hashtag Wi-Fi (#wi-fi) on Twitter, you may be surprised at the number of peeps whose lives apparently revolve around Wi-Fi access.

Seems perfectly normal to me … LOL

So of course the current craze among these citizens Wi-Fi is to tweet all about their online exploits at 30,000 feet — now that several airlines offer Wi-Fi for peanuts.

My first rhetorical question: Did the splashlanding of US Airways Flight 1549 have Wi-Fi? I assume not, since the videos I have seen were shot outside the plane. Someone may have shot cell phone “footage” inside, but I am thinking the passengers were probably tweeting God at that point.

But anyway, can you imagine if Joe Nerdboy had been on board, online, with a web cam streaming live during the event? Now that would have been some sweet historical YouTubage (now that we know it had a happy ending …) Oh well … I digress.

So have you done the mile-high Wi-Fi thing?

Recently I did a sounding among communications types to get their thoughts. Here are some comments.

Melody Chalaban, of Belkin (which makes some of my favorite gear), said she paid about $12 to connect in the sky, “about the same as a hotel Wi-Fi fee.” She was pleased and thought that price is a bargain — considering the increased productivity during business travel.

Chalaban referred to her experience on American, using GoGo between LAX and JFK, both ways.

“… Setup was extremely easy,” she said. “Even though I didn’t use it — I was glad to see a tech support guy from the Wi-Fi provider company on the plane troubleshooting. He was wearing a polo shirt with the company logo on it so it was easy to spot him,” she said.

(Ha … “a plant” no doubt …)

Her criticism was constructive. She wants Wi-Fi on all flights and some electrical outlets for a mid-air refueling of the laptop.

Best tip:
“I would caution passengers from using Skype.  The last thing I want to hear is some inconsiderate knucklehead conducting a full-blown conference call on the plane,” she said, (not mincing words). “It’s enough that when we land, and people turn on their cell phones, you get to hear people yelling into their phones about where to pick them up.”

Amen!

On the ground — quite the techie consumer — Chalaban uses Wi-Fi at home, connected via DSL and a wireless N router to stream audio (Pandora music) and video (Hulu) on her laptop.

Kelly Reeves of KLR Communications first used Wi-Fi in the sky on an American flight from JFK to SFO.

“It was great to be able to immediately respond to e-mails, communicate with media and my clients,  and actually get work done during the four-hour flight,” Reeves said.

Reeves and Chalaban both raved that Wi-Fi access alleviated the need to rush to the hotel room, freeing them up to do other things in their city of choice.

“The only problem was, once people realized I was on the Internet, they kept asking me to check their stocks and the market,” Reeves said.

But … no tweets about the 401Ks, I bet!

Then Andy Abramson of Comunicano “grandfather claused” everyone, relating experiences dating back to Boeing Conexxion service several years ago.

Abramson likes the shock value of piling e-mails in a client’s inbox as he flies, leaving a nice little good morning surprise when the client enters the office.

“My experience with Conexxion made it possible to take mid-week ‘red eyes’ to Europe and not worry about missing anything,” Abramson said. “I actually launched the Nokia Blogger Relations program on the day I was flying to Munich back in 2005 and watched history happen before my eyes online ….”

The in-flight connection allowed him to identify the need for additional server capacity as readers commented while he monitored the coverage and reacted to questions.

Abramson gets around. He is on the road about 300 days a year, and he has 26 people on his PR account team. He was also the person who made the “Phweet voice call” to Joanna Stern of LapTop Magazine during the launch of GoGo.

Like me, he also has his eye on Row44 deployments.

“I’ve used the on-train Wi-Fi on the Heathrow Express from Heathrow to London’s Paddington Station,” Abramson said. ” It’s not a plane, but gosh is it great to get off a ten hour flight and in 15 minutes be all connected, updated and not be so far behind. Sure a smart phone lets you do something, but a real full Internet experience while in motion can’t be beat.”

No Andy, it is not a plane … LOL … And it is another story for another time. And yes, I think an in-motion Internet experience is … well … so like out-of-body.

Know what I sayin?