Last week the Wall Street Journal ran an article about Wi-Fi services available on airlines. Bottomline: people love it, but really aren’t willing to pay for it. Why not?

According to the article, “in tests and now in regular service, usage drops off considerably when travelers must pay for the service.” Even Alaska Airlines, which only charges $1, saw a steep drop off in usage. (By the way, Alaska Airlines is a “cashless” airline, so if you want the Wi-Fi, you have to pay for it with a credit card – ggrrrrrrr.)

So what’s going on here? Is the economy causing people to cut back on non-essentials? Or have people become so used to ubiquitous computing that they expect “the cloud” to envelope them everywhere, all the time, for free?

Or could it be – as we suspect – that sitting in an (albeit overpriced and cramped) airline seat at 35,000 feet is one of the last places where you can seek refuge from our “always on” world of instantaneous communications?

An interesting question to answer for sure, and one which has ramifications for service design in the worlds of travel, entertainment, and hospitality.