Airport wait isn’t so bad with free wi-fi

That free hour or two before your flight won’t pass nearly as slowly as it once did—for better or for worse. Wi-fi is on its way to replacing airports’ magazine-heavy bookshops as the best way to make use of your time before your flight—especially if the wi-fi is free.

Jaunted asks for travelers’ votes for the best US airports for wi-fi. Since the “pop culture travel guide” website initially posted the request on October 24th, their top choices have been Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Portland (Oregon). They also toast the most recent addition to the free wi-fi world, New Orleans’ Louis Armstrong airport, which started the service on October 30th.

As for tracking all airport wi-fi (charged or free), Travelpost.com seems to have the best cost-comparison. Their chart shows the hourly/daily/monthly breakdown for both domestic and international airports, and mentions any specific areas of the airports for coverage. Their rating system gives top honors to Atlanta, followed by O’Hare and LAX. Unfortunately, none of the three offers free service—that doesn’t come until #5 (Las Vegas), #7 (Phoenix), and #12 (Orlando). Among international airports that provide free service are Kuala Lumpur, Moscow, Cairo, and Sao Paulo.

AirportWiFiGuide.com also comes up on the radar, noteworthy for covering those other intangibles: signal strength and speed of the connection, and the comfort of the waiting area.