I don’t think it’s an understatement to say that of the legacy US carriers, United has a reputation as having the least reliable wifi. Board your flight ready to work 4 hours and get 3 minutes of work done.
Well, on top of moving to free Wifi, the quality should get a massive upgrade.
People that have enjoyed the Starlink wifi aboard boutique carrier JSX’s planes have enjoyed great speeds and reliable service. So this is exciting news and, in my opinion, could drive people towards selecting a United flight if they value being able to work aboard and if they know the flight will have Wifi.
Now, this won’t happen overnight. United will begin the process of testing an installation and who knows it will take to get fleet wide. In the meantime, Delta already offers fast and free wifi on a majority of its planes (although you do sometimes hit the lottery and wind up having to pay $20 or so for terrible wifi on a non-updated jet) and JetBlue has had free “Fly-Fi” for year which is generally “good” quality though often not amazing.
The only other US airline I’m aware of to use Starlink is Hawaiian Airlines, soon to (probably) merge with Alaska Airlines, and of which I’ve never had the pleasure of trying our their Starlink service.
American Airlines, for its part, still charges you for mediocre wifi, starting at $10 and going up and up by flight.
So what do you think? Will this get you to shift from another carrier to United once it’s all up and running?
Thoughts?
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