If you are a cost conscious traveler who was smart enough to know how to find cheap airplane tickets or cheap vacation packages, there will be plenty of opportunities while you are on the road to access Wi-Fi for free.
The following are ways to access the Internet for free while traveling:
Through the end of 2012 Wi-Fi seekers can use Boingos app or Wi-Fi locator to log on near several major tourist attractions in San Francisco and at over 200 hotspots in New York.
Starbucks (over 7,000 locations) and McDonalds (over 12,000 outlets in the U.S. alone) are offering guests free Wi-Fi access.
Most budget and economy hotels offer complimentary Internet access vs. most expensive hotels that are charging $10 to $25 per day.
Select upper scale hotels have started offering free Internet access to loyalty plan members. Participants in Omni Hotels Select Guest program and those in Kimpton Hotels In Touch program are provided complimentary Wi-Fi. Both programs are free to join.
Select airports have started offering free Wi-Fi. In many cases it is smaller airports, such as Fort Lauderdale, Long Beach and John Wayne that are offering free Wi-Fi to attract more fliers.
In May of this year five major cable companies (Bright House Networks, Cablevision Systems, Comcast, Cox, and Time Warner) came out with a CableWifi program that allows their high speed Internet subscribers to access each others hotspots. The service is currently available only in select metro areas in California, Florida, Missouri, New Jersey, New York and North Carolina. An additional 50,000 hotspots are expected to come online in 2013.
www.cheapfares.com