Locking Business Travelers out of Power Outlets

This is a ChargeCarte by SmarteCarte in the Cincinnati airport that lets travelers pay to top of the batteries on their mobile devices and laptops:

This is the power outlet that's no longer available to business travelers because SmarteCarte controls it:

I wrote about this in Feb 2007 when this first came out and suggested that this would lead to less free outlets for travelers:

Over time, It will surely become more difficult to find open outlets in airports with Smarte Carte power outlets installed since that would cut into the vendor's profits. Contractually, the airport will probably have to waste money putting caps on non-Smarte Carte publicly accessible outlets. Ever seen a FREE luggage cart in an airport with Smart Cartes installed?

At that time, a SmartCarte representative contacted me (rather than comment) and said this wouldn't happen.

It did.

I don't blame SmartCarte for this. The Cincinnati airport has chosen to put a business relationship with SmarteCarte ahead of the travelers who pass through their airport every day.

Do the board members of the Cincinnati airport commission charge visitors to their homes for use of power? No? Then why do they treat their airport's guests with such disrespect?

Makes me glad that airports like San Jose have plenty of wifi, outlets and working tables. It's a joy to get to the airport early when you can sit and browse for free.

Haven't seen that yet, but I'm sure I would be annoyed to have to pay for power and $10/hour for the WiFi hot spot.

I'm all for them making money, but I have to deal with attendants that are less than hospitable, wait for my flight, stuck in a terminal for hours for a connection. Everything shuts down at 9:00 with crappy food and service. Ok maybe that was just my experience in Minneapolis. Terminals suck the joy out of vacations. Now even more sucking of money out of wallets.

What if they tacked on $.50 to each ticket as a power surcharge? That should definitely cover it.

Comments

1. Posted by: Keith Gregory on December 23, 2008 9:27 AM:

the big issue I see is with the current laissez faire approach to power outlets in airports is if someone has already squatted on the last open outlet, and there are never many, what do I do?

Now, what the airports should do, is rather than nickel and dime people to death, is provide large numbers of open outlets- make them standard in the seating area. Along with free wi fi.

Does anyone actually pay for wi fi at airports?

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