Picture this: I’m hovering 35,000 ft above the bottom, flying via the clouds, and I’ve the digital world at my fingertips as if I have been on the bottom. I’m streaming the most recent from Conan on YouTube on my iPad, leaping right into a recreation of Fortnite on my iPhone, listening to Spotify within the background, and even getting some work executed on my laptop computer.
It sounds unattainable, proper? After all, inflight Wi-Fi is notoriously gradual, spotty, and unpredictable, various from airline to airline and even airplane to airplane. But United Airlines is making an attempt to vary that. Thanks to its partnership with Starlink for its next-generation Wi-Fi product, it’s rolling out a lot quicker and cost-free Wi-Fi throughout its fleet.
The course of started in May 2025, when United started putting in new Wi-Fi antennas and hotspots on its regional plane, known as United Express. About 170 of these planes are already outfitted.
But this week marked a giant milestone: United debuted Starlink on its first mainline plane, a Boeing 737-800. I skilled it firsthand on a check flight on October 14, 2025. The flight departed and returned to Chicago O’Hare Airport, and the following day, that very same airplane entered common passenger service.
Simply put, the connection was unbelievable: on par with my dwelling Internet and generally even quicker. More importantly, it solved a number of the largest frustrations with inflight Wi-Fi. You will not have to fret about lifeless zones, unavailable networks or gradual speeds. The service was constant, quick, straightforward to attach, and labored seamlessly throughout a number of gadgets.
Oh, and the very best half? It’s fully free for United MileagePlus members – a loyalty program that is free to affix. So let’s evaluation United’s Starlink inflight Wi-Fi expertise, which really begins earlier than the entrance cabin door closes.
United designed this subsequent era of Wi-Fi to be door-to-door, that means that even if you happen to’re sitting on the door after which taxiing, you will not get disconnected, even with airplane mode on. I began by placing my iPhone 17 Pro Max in airplane mode and connecting to United’s Wi-Fi community.
A notice: If you’ve gotten iCloud Private Relay, it is best to disable it when utilizing inflight Wi-Fi, as some United Airlines engineers prompt, as it could actually trigger the connection to fail or decelerate.
After this, faucet on the Wi-Fi community, then choose “Open Portal Page” or it’ll seem robotically. You’ll see United’s new branding for the product (the “Break the Wi-Fi Barrier” tagline) and a “Get Started” button. From there, the United app will open whether it is put in in your telephone after which the connection web page will seem. Here, you may scroll via three pages of fast details about the service, together with three guidelines.
Those are:
- ‘Voice and video calls are prohibited by federal regulation’
- ‘Enjoy audio, video, on-line gaming and stay occasion content material whereas sporting headphones’
- ‘If others would possibly discover what you are watching offensive, select one thing else to stream’
They’re fairly frequent sense, in step with what you are purported to and should not do with onboard Wi-Fi. It will then ask you if you’re prepared to attach and your title will seem (it’ll pull it out of your United MileagePlus account), click on Connect after which you will note a 15 second advert.
That’s a lot less complicated than United’s present setup, which additionally includes connecting to United WiFi, however then by yourself you need to navigate to ‘unitedwifi.com‘Select an possibility for texting (which is free) or full web (which prices $8) after which comply with a a lot slower course of. I will even point out that since it’s ViaSat, it’s quite a bit, quite a bit, quite a bit slower and I wasn’t even engaged on my flight to this occasion.
However, coming again to Starlink, after that you can be linked and may put together to make use of your gadget usually. You may stream TikToks and YouTube movies, verify for mail and reply, ship textual content messages, and even add photographs or movies to a social community. I additionally did a velocity check and acquired some actually spectacular numbers… even when working down a runway to take off.
I ran a velocity check with Ookla proper after connecting and achieved a powerful 461 Mbps down and 43.6 Mbps up, which is nearly on par with my dwelling Wi-Fi and quicker than the networks of a few of my colleagues and associates. While taking off, I hit 360 Mbps down and 44.6 Mbps up—slower, however a lot quicker than common in-flight Wi-Fi, which does not even work till you are at 10,000 ft.
Mara Palcisco, United’s vice chairman of engineering and reliability, instructed me that this Boeing 737-800 was outfitted with two Starlink antennas on the highest of the airplane close to the entrance, doubling the variety of antennas on United Express planes and indicating that extra folks will likely be linked.
“Wireless entry factors develop with the plane and we’ve wi-fi entry factors that pilots can entry on the flight deck,” Palcisco defined. The latter differs from United’s present setup by permitting pilots to make use of the corporate’s distributed iPads to entry extra in-flight instruments, resembling extra detailed climate forecasts. This could possibly be particularly helpful for excursions throughout the Atlantic or when flying over areas such because the rainforest.
The two important antennas additionally hook up with a number of Wi-Fi entry factors inside the cabin, which is the community that passengers’ gadgets hook up with. It’s evenly distributed all through the cabin and United examined it pretty completely, together with with warmth maps.
It can also be designed for a passenger to attach a couple of gadget. I adopted the identical steps on two different telephones, an iPad and my MacBook Pro, and all the pieces went easily.
I attempted to attach a Nintendo Switch 2, however bumped into an issue: the console’s built-in mini browser could not totally load the pages wanted to attach. I’d see the “Let’s get began” half after which an error would seem. However, United noticed this in motion and are working to repair it. However, different passengers on this check flight efficiently linked a Lenovo Legion Go with out issues and I had no issues with my different check gadgets.
And even with greater than 5 linked gadgets in my seat, I did not see any degradation in velocity or connectivity. This additionally applies to transferring across the cabin. And whereas neither you nor I may make a video name, I made three FaceTime calls on this check flight with headphones on; They have been all virtually excellent.
I known as my good friend Ellen, who you’ll be able to see within the screenshot above, and my dad and mom twice. While my audio was generally just a little muffled, it could possibly be that the AirPods Pro 3’s microphones have been balancing the sound degree for the overall noise of the airplane and by chance minimize off my voice, or I used to be talking quietly, it really labored.
And that is the primary gist right here, much like what Grant Milstead, United’s vice chairman of digital, instructed me earlier this 12 months: that it is “enabling the expertise of residing within the sky.” This Starlink-equipped United flight felt prefer it was utilizing gadgets on the bottom. I did not have to fret about finishing a piece process or disconnecting from the world.
I may hearken to a brand new Spotify playlist, watch a YouTube video I did not obtain, and reply to messages in actual time. No extra awkward loading occasions or failed hundreds. Even having the ability to stream titles from Disney+, Apple TV+, Hulu, or Netflix labored right here.
All this, plus the truth that it is free, far more secure, and helps multi-device connections, makes it a real triple menace. And United is targeted on bringing this expertise to its whole fleet, however it’ll take a while.
Regarding its flagship plane, resembling this 737-800, in addition to the 757, 767, 777, 787 and Airbus fashions, Mara Palcisco shared: “We are beginning slowly to go quick so we are able to excellent the set up, and from there we plan to go fairly quick.” United is beginning with the 737-800 and estimates it could actually set up it on 15 of those planes per thirty days.
And Palcisco shared some insights into the set up course of on these bigger important jets: “We’re going to start installations by leaving the ray-dome on and putting in the Starlink system. We deactivate the present system, set up Starlink, and on the subsequent base verify, we’ll take away the ray-dome.”
The purpose for the break up is that Starlink installations may be accomplished in a number of days, whereas eradicating the outdated antenna is a barely longer course of. A baseline verify additionally includes an extended interruption of service.
And Starlink, right here, as at dwelling, works by connecting to satellites in low Earth orbit about 350 miles above Earth. That compares to the oldest satellites, that are 22,000 miles above Earth. A Starlink connection may be despatched backwards and forwards 70 occasions in a single beam, in comparison with older fashions. That’s loopy, and because of some of these connection, you will not discover an interruption as you progress from one satellite tv for pc to a different, and you are able to do it far more simply throughout storms or unhealthy climate.
So you’ll be able to anticipate it to start out increasing on these mainline plane as we transfer in direction of 2026, and will probably be on 300 regional plane by the tip of 2025; It is at the moment on 170 United Express regional plane.
A submit shared by Jake Krol (@jake31krol)
A photograph posted by in
It was a unbelievable expertise and I can not wait to make use of it once more. Between not having Wi-Fi engaged on my preliminary United flight and being fairly gradual on the flight dwelling, the Starlink-equipped Boeing 737-800 was fairly a pleasure and units a brand new baseline for in-flight Wi-Fi.
Lastly, whereas this was not a full flight as not all seats have been crammed, every passenger introduced a number of gadgets. At the very least, we weren’t making it straightforward for the system. Suffice to say, I do not anticipate there to be any huge variations from a full flight by way of connectivity.
Milstead strengthened that Starlink was the best accomplice to match the scale of United and its fleet: “At any given time, we’re the scale of a small metropolis on the bottom, so we want a whole lot of dimension and scale to assist our world community, particularly in our hubs, of what number of passengers will entry the community.” He famous that the scale of the Starlink community’s low-Earth orbit satellites and the protection they supply are key.
For now, it’s kind of of luck to be on a United flight with Starlink enabled, however if you happen to do, you may check the longer term and cross your fingers each time you fly once more to get it. And your pockets will likely be very glad too.
- United Airlines efficiently put in Starlink on its first airplane and the promised speeds are as much as 50 occasions quicker
- Disney Imagineers Built a New Animatronic Parrot for the Beak and Barrel Lounge, and It Steals the Show
- Tight scale? United Airlines needs to take the stress out of taking your subsequent flight with AI and maps
