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Or watched crap on the hotel TV... But the point is you can be much more constructive with Wi-Fi. You can work if you have to, reassure family and friends over your well-being, negotiate contracts, confirm the start time and the best place to park for the wedding that you've travelled 2000 miles to attend and so on... and then share the event that night on Facebook with 600 strangers.

WiFi is handy in hotels, I know that. When I've finished in a nightclub or pub, and I get back to the hotel at 1am or 2am, as it's a holiday, I like to catch up on news or stuff. Or e-mail someone. 

In pubs, well I wish some didn't have WiFi. My brother-in-law is an internet addict. We went in a pub once and he rushed to the bar and said, "What's your WiFi password?" Most of our 'conversation' was him checking his horse racing results and placing bets.

If we'd been in one of those country pubs, where they don't always have WiFi, maybe my brother-in-law and I would have been able to have a conversation!

That's what I thought too. But my flight landed late, and I had to run to my connection on the opposite side of the airport. It was already boarding when I arrived. Considering the second leg of my flight was 10 hours, I was quite angry and starving by the time food service started. So no, I'm NEVER going to take it for granted that I can just eat when the plane lands again.

QUOTE: Yes, i would expect hotels to have wi-fi included for work and family contact, but if you are  on holiday or having a meal in a restaurant, it is  very liberating to interact with your fellow diners or  just take in the holiday scenery/ambience through your  senses not via a phone/tablet screen.

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I've found that when dining with people new, a lot of people want to talk about Trump. I'd rather just stare at my phone in silence, thanks!

A toilet is not like wifi. One is (arguably) a necessity and the other is a luxury. Both are value-added services.

Understanding the difference between necessity and luxury is about as difficult as knowing the difference between opinion and fact. Meaning it shouldn't be hard, but for many it is hard.

The general public has a very hard time differentiating between necessity and luxury. They have an even harder time differentiating want and need. They think because they want it, that equates to needing it, and if they need it, it should be standard, and if it should be standard anyway, then make it free, because I bought a ticket for a seat, you know.

I've come to expect free wifi because the business world has chosen to walk down that path....at least here in the US.

But I'm not entitled to free wifi.

If folks want to be prepared at all times, buy your own internet antenna. Then you won't have to rely on anyone to get your internet fix. Be self reliant instead of blaming public business and services for your lack of preparedness.

Side note: I was traveling in car with a friend and I thought it was pretty funny (and smart) that he was getting wifi by hopping from source to source as we drove. I had to wonder how many others were hijacking free wifi meant for customers only. 

Was I entitled to that bandwidth?

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How slow were you driving?

I don't know the cost of implementing WiFi. Sure, the big boys (e.g. a chain of pubs) will have them as standard now. But if you go in an independent burger shop, offering a basic service such as £1.50 for a cheese/beef burger, it's highly unlikely they'll be offering WiFi. And when one goes in such places, you notice that people are TALKING TO EACH OTHER!

But even those places get the rude customers. There's a little cafe by mine that is "no frills". Burgers are less than £2. They provide basic tea and coffee, along with cakes. Other foods include sandwiches. But the owner once told me she gets a lot of people expressing dismay, often rudely, at the lack of WiFi.

One is in such a cafe for less than half an hour. Why not just talk to someone in that cafe? Or eat/drink slowly and notice your surroundings?