Apparently, Airborne Access’ Wi-Fi network is indeed glitchy. While that’s usually a bad thing, on the balance, I like it because I keep on enjoying more free Wi-Fi access. Similar to the first time, I was able to essentially double the minutes of my Airborne Access Wingspan prepaid cards. The other Saturday, I used some of the prepaid cards I got from the Eastwood City Wi-Fi promo. Sometime into my second hour, the network went dead and so I finished my web surfing session. Last Saturday, I checked the balance of my cards on a whim and was pleasantly surprised to find my minutes unused! Two more free hours!

And speaking of really free Wi-Fi, it seems that the Wi-Fi hotspots in Eastwood are really free. I still haven’t heard of any official promo or anything but I was able to surf to my heart’s content last Friday at Starbucks in Eastwood Citywalk 2 (very laptop friendly, with three power outlets scattered inside the café). I thought that the free Wi-Fi was a misconfigured Airborne Access hotspot, and I thought they corrected it because an officemate of mine told me that the AA portal came up about two weeks after we were enjoying the free access. Well, imagine my surprise when I connected to the Airborne Access network at Starbucks and no portal page was requested when I tried to surf.

I also tried the Wi-Fi hotspot at Starbucks Madrigal Alabang the other Saturday and found out that the AA and Globe Wiz networks there were also free. Well, I think the access point here is really misconfigured because while no portal page was presented when I connected to either network, the Internet connection was quite intermittent, leading to a really poor surfing experience.

For really comfortable free Wi-Fi surfing, Robinsons Galleria is a good bet. The Starbucks and Gloria Jean’s cafe’s there have multiple power outlets (with comfy sofa chairs to boot) and Bo’s Coffee Club at the first floor sometimes permits laptop owners to plug in to the power outlet at the column there. If I remember correctly, I think Gloria Jean’s is open 24 hours—perfect for those all nighters.

Update (Mar 21). Well, well, well. Regarding that Eastwood City Wi-Fi promo, I redeemed my last batch of receipts on January 31. But they ran out of prepaid cards and they then took my cellphone number so that they can inform me when the cards can be obtained. The text message came in about two weeks ago, and I claimed the cards last Monday. Surprise! The cards they gave were the 300-peso Wingspan cards worth 5 hours of Wi-Fi access each! I now have an extra 15 free Wi-Fi hours.