JetBlue Figures Out How to Keep Wi-Fi Free, Disses Rivals Gogo and Row44

JetBlue indeed has plans to begin charging bag fees in 2015, but the airline has crafted a business model at odds with those of its competitors and will keep its basic, satellite-based Wi-Fi free for the foreseeable future. At least that's the plan as articulated by Marty St. George, JetBlue's senior vice president, commercial, at the airline's investor day yesterday. The key part of the Fly-Fi business model, executed with partners ViaSat and LiveTV, is that JetBlue claims a usage rate of 43% of passengers on average, and they skew younger, and more tech-savvy and affluent than passengers on rival airlines, St. George said. Instead of an airline merely being a "vessel" for Gogo's and Row44's Wi-Fi, JetBlue controls what it claims is its superior Fly-Fi