You remove the billing, and then it is truly exactly the same as the access point in my house, or the one in the office, or the one in many offices in the Bay Area.

And if you remove the billing, you also remove the need for customer support. Wi-Fi/802.11 is truly plug and play, more so than modems using the (free) phone lines available at the Admiral's Clubs.

And, yes, airports are already wired with high-speed internet by AA for its own internal purposes (VPN tunnels for Sabre terminals/printers/gate readers, check-in kiosks, e-mail, intranet, etc.), so all it would take is for AA to buy a $500 access point.

Remember that at $360/year T-Mobile is more expensive than what elite pay for the annual membership to the club itself!!!