(FORTUNE Magazine) – A word of advice to the executives of Tenzing Communications: Don't screw up the user experience! I don't have any reason to believe that Tenzing, a Seattle-area startup designing a new system for Internet access on airplanes, will do so. But the possibilities for screwing up are so vast that I thought I should weigh in now, rather than complaining after the fact.

My last experience using a computer on an airplane was on a flight from Phoenix to San Francisco on my favorite airline, America West. Given that this was in the middle of spring training, the plane was packed with large people returning from a visit to the San Francisco Giants training site; these people appeared to be very, very happy, possibly assisted by alcoholic beverages. I was on the aisle in row 14. I pulled out my laptop and faced a choice: squeeze my wife in the middle seat even more or lean out into the aisle and risk having my right arm dislocated by the beverage cart. Inches from my face was the dark, unused screen built into the back of the seat in front of me. I quit after a few minutes, annoyed that I couldn't make my flight time productive.

Sadly, this is a pretty typical airline-computer experience. Sure, commercial airplanes are a very difficult environment in which to try to improve the experience of using computers. The best thing airlines could do for computing customers is untenable: Raise ticket prices enough to justify the cost of moving seats to create more legroom. Some airlines claim to have more legroom, but I haven't measured any. I just know that, at 6 feet 4 inches, I'm larger in every dimension than whatever dimensions airline seat designers use as a benchmark, and that hell will freeze over before the airlines make first-class seats standard equipment for all passengers.

There is, however, a realistic way airlines can give customers e-nirvana: Offer Net access as a built-in customer service, like free peanuts, soda pop, and magazines. Make it easy to use. Make it free. America West and other airlines tried to charge for services and failed, which is why that screen in front of my face was dark.

This isn't hard to understand, although the airlines may make it hard. Remember what they did with power plugs for computers? Several years ago, the airlines decided to install power plugs in first and business classes; but the plugs only worked with special adapter cords. Have you noticed anyone using those cords recently? No, and neither have I: It just doesn't work for anyone who already has a briefcase full of laptop cables and adapters. At least the airlines didn't try charging extra for the power plugs, although they did only retrofit the first- and business-class seats.

Which brings me back to Tenzing. The company recently announced that Virgin Atlantic had become the first airline to publicly commit to integrating the service into every seat of every airplane the company flies. But we don't know the details of how these systems will work yet. And, having just gotten Virgin Atlantic to make such a big commitment, it will likely be very difficult for the Tenzing people to tell Virgin exactly how to configure the systems for their users.

But the only way Virgin will make a success of this service is to forget about trying to make money from it. And then make it dead simple: Virgin will have to figure out how to provide both Net access and power as simple as standard plugs on every seat in every plane. You get on an airplane, plug your standard AC jack into a three-prong outlet, connect your modem to the analog phone plug that's in the seat, and start computing.

Don't get me wrong! It will take a lot of money to make this work. If Virgin does the right thing, it will equip each plane with a bunch of high-tech stuff in the cargo compartment to act as real-time, high-speed access points to the Internet, and then wire that mess up to every seat. And it's probably a real challenge to make sure that all that technology doesn't use up the power needed to run the engines, or screw up the navigational system. But the only benefit I want from all of that technology is for the airline to give me access to the Internet, and to save me from having my battery run out before I finish catching up with my e-mail and writing.

I don't want to play games or chat with other passengers. I don't want news and stocks packaged by the airline or a contractor to the airline. I don't want to share my e-mail with people around me who can also look at the screen in the seat back.

I just want to use my own computer in my own space, for free.

For that, I'll pay more for my tickets and avoid airlines that don't understand what I really want. Hear that, Virgin?

STEWART ALSOP is a partner with New Enterprise Associates, a venture capital firm. Except as noted, neither he nor his partnership has a financial interest in the companies mentioned. He can be reached at alsop_infotech@fortunemail.com. His column can be bookmarked online at www.fortune.com/technology/alsop.