"Why Are Airport Lounges Power-Free Zones?"

Sunday, December 4, 2005
 
Why Are Airport Lounges Power-Free Zones?
By Harry McCracken
PC World Techlog


I'm sitting in the San Francisco airport waiting for a plane. And I'm in the
one seat at this gate, as far as I can tell, that's next to a wall outlet.
(There are a grand total of two plugs--one in use by me, the other by a guy
who's snaked his AC adapter to a seat across the way.) 

As far as I can tell, the world has two kinds of airport waiting areas:
Those with no wall sockets, and those with far too few. I don't get
it--especially since so many airports have Wi-Fi, which would suggest that
they understand that many of us need to get work done while we wait. 

You can run a notebook off its battery, of course, but I can't be the only
person who wants to keep every bit of juice for use onboard the plane. (I
usually fly United, which seems to be a laggard when it comes to power plugs
in coach, so I don't tote an airplane-friendly power brick.) 

Here at SFO, this terminal recently went through an endless, obviously
expensive upgrade to provide more restaurants and gift shops--yet there
still seems to be an average of one wall outlet for every 8,162 notebook
users. Maybe it's just that airports aren't used to providing amenities that
they don't charge for. 

Still it couldn't cost that much to add more outlets. And when I need one, I
need it so badly that I'd cheerfully drop quarters into a little coin slot
to pay for it. 

Sorry for the rant--am I the only one who gets worked up over this?


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