While I totally agree with the other posters here, one should PAY for wifi if one is going to USE wifi, I HAVE been know to enable it for #1 1K GF for the occasional hookup of her iphone or ipad to get email once or twice.

I really think airlines should offer something like a 5 minute freebie or something to users, I think it would be good marketing and it would actually most likely HOOK users into buying up to a longer term plan.

For the 3-5 minutes it takes for her to get email on the iphone while I have already paid, I really can't justify the extra 13-20$ spend.

That said,

the easiest ways, and least cumbersome (I DO travel with an AE or other travel router which can always be put into action) is to either

A) use one of those older usb wifi dongles that we ALL most likely have lying around. Since your laptop most likely has WIFI built in, this now is just a second wifi network connection and can easily be bonded in either winxp, vista or 7. It also works perfectly on the mac.

B) for macs, winmo devices and even pc's with a little more work around, I will SHARE the wifi connection with my BLUETOOTH connection and then a little bit of work those devices can connect (I'm not going to spell out all the details here) but I haven't been able to get this working with the iphone or ipad.

C) just use an ethernet cable to connect the two, share the wifi connection with the eth0 connection and your done.

Also, make sure to check for free wifi promos, they are literally everywhere.