Image this: I’m hovering 35,000 toes above the bottom, flying via the clouds – and I’ve bought the digital world at my fingertips as if I had been on the bottom. I’m streaming the newest Conan bit on YouTube on my iPad, leaping right into a Fortnite match on my iPhone, listening to Spotify within the background, and even knocking out some work on my laptop computer.
Sounds unattainable, proper? In any case, in-flight Wi-Fi is infamous for being sluggish, spotty, and unpredictable – various from airline to airline, and even from airplane to airplane. However United Airways is attempting to vary that. Due to its partnership with Starlink for its next-generation Wi-Fi product, it’s rolling out a lot quicker Wi-Fi without charge throughout its whole fleet.
The method began again in Might 2025, when United started putting in new antennas and Wi-Fi entry factors on its regional jets – dubbed United Categorical. About 170 of these planes are already outfitted.
However this week marked a giant milestone: United debuted Starlink on its first mainline jet, a Boeing 737-800. I bought to expertise it firsthand on a check flight on October 14, 2025. The flight departed from and returned to Chicago’s O’Hare Airport – and the subsequent day, that very same jet entered common service for passengers.
To place it merely, the connection was unbelievable – on par with my house web and, at instances, even quicker. Extra importantly, it solved a number of the greatest frustrations with in-flight Wi-Fi. No extra worrying about useless zones, unavailable networks, or sluggish speeds. The service was constant, fast, straightforward to hook up with, and labored seamlessly throughout a number of units.
Oh, and one of the best half? It’s utterly free for United MileagePlus members – a loyalty program that’s free to affix. So let’s stroll via United’s Starlink in-flight Wi-Fi expertise, which really begins earlier than the primary cabin door closes.
United designed this subsequent era of Wi-Fi to be gate-to-gate, that means that even for those who’re sitting on the gate after which taxiing, you gained’t be disconnected, even with airplane mode engaged. I began by flipping my iPhone 17 Professional Max into airplane mode and connecting to the United Wi-Fi community.
One notice: when you have iCloud Personal Relay, it’s greatest to show it off when utilizing in-flight Wi–Fi, as a couple of United Airways engineers prompt, since it may trigger the connection to fail or decelerate.
After this, faucet the Wi-Fi community, then choose “Open Portal Web page,” or it’ll seem mechanically. You’ll see United’s new branding for the product – “Break the Wi-Fi Barrier” is the catchphrase – and a button to “Get Began.” From there, it’ll open the United app if it’s put in in your cellphone after which convey up the connection web page. Right here, you’ll scroll via three pages of fast data on the service, together with three guidelines.
These are:
- ‘Voice and video calls are prohibited by federal regulation’
- ‘Take pleasure in audio, video, on-line gaming and reside occasion content material whereas utilizing headphones’
- ‘If others may discover what you are viewing offensive, please select one thing else to stream’
Fairly commonsense ones, consistent with what you’re already purported to or not purported to be doing on in-flight Wi-Fi. Then it’ll ask you for those who’re prepared to attach along with your identify showing – it’ll pull this out of your United MileagePlus account – click on join, and you then’ll watch a 15-second commercial.
That’s a lot less complicated than United’s present setup, which additionally includes connecting to United WiFi, however then by yourself, that you must navigate to ‘unitedwifi.com’ choose an choice for both texting (which is free) or full web (which is $8), after which undergo a a lot slower course of. I’ll additionally point out that, because it’s ViaSat, it’s a lot, a lot, a lot slower and wasn’t even engaged on my flight to this occasion.
Again to Starlink, although, after that, you’re related and may put together to essentially use your machine as regular. I may stream TikToks and YouTube movies, browse mail and reply, ship texts, and even add pictures or movies to a social community. I additionally ran a pace check and bought some actually spectacular numbers … even when barreling down a runway to take off.
I performed a Velocity Check utilizing Ookla proper after connecting and hit a powerful 461 Mbps down and 43.6 Mbps up, which is sort of on par with my house Wi-Fi and quicker than a few of my colleagues’ and pals’ networks. Whereas taking off, I hit 360Mbps down and 44.6Mbps up – slower, however method quicker than regular in-flight Wi-Fi, which doesn’t even work till you’re at 10,000 toes.
Mara Palcisco, United’s Vice President of Engineering & Reliability, informed me that this Boeing 737-800 was outfitted with two Starlink antennas on the highest of the plane close to the entrance, which doubles the variety of antennas on United Categorical planes and signifies that extra of us shall be related.
“The wi-fi entry factors scale with the plane, and now we have wi-fi entry factors that the pilots can entry on the flight deck,” defined Palcisco. The latter differs from United’s present setup, permitting pilots to make use of the corporate’s distributed iPads to entry further instruments in-flight, similar to extra detailed climate forecasts. This might be particularly helpful for across-the-Atlantic jaunts or when flying over areas just like the rainforest.
The 2 major antennas additionally join to numerous Wi-Fi entry factors contained in the cabin, which is the community to which passenger units join. It’s evenly distributed all through the cabin, and United examined it fairly totally, together with with warmth mapping.
It’s additionally designed for one passenger to attach a couple of machine – I went via the identical steps on two different telephones, an iPad, and my MacBook Professional, and all went with no hitch.
I did attempt to join a Nintendo Change 2, however hit a snag there – the built-in mini browser on the console couldn’t absolutely load the pages wanted to attach. I’d see the ‘Let’s Get Began’ portion, after which it might error out. United did see this in motion, although, and is engaged on a repair. Different passengers on this check flight efficiently related a Lenovo Legion Go together with no points, although, and I didn’t have any points with my different check units.
And even with upwards of 5 units related all at my seat, I didn’t see any degradation in pace or connectivity. That additionally goes for transferring across the cabin. And whilst you nor I might have the ability to conduct a video name, I did make three FaceTime calls on this check flight with earbuds in – all of them went just about flawlessly.
I known as my buddy Ellen, whom you’ll be able to see within the screenshot above, and my dad and mom twice. Whereas my audio was at instances a bit of muffled on their finish, it may be that the microphones on AirPods Professional 3 had been balancing sound degree for normal airplane noise and accidentally chopping my voice out, or I used to be speaking softly, it did certainly work.
And that’s the primary gist right here, much like what Grant Milstead, United’s Vice President of Digital Know-how, informed me earlier this yr – that it’s “enabling the lounge within the sky expertise.” This United flight outfitted with Starlink felt just about like I used to be utilizing units on the bottom. I didn’t have to fret about finishing a piece activity or about being disconnected from the world.
I may take heed to a brand new playlist Spotify churned out, watch a YouTube video I didn’t obtain, and reply to messages in actual time. No extra awkward load instances or failed hundreds. Even with the ability to stream titles from Disney+, Apple TV+, Hulu, or Netflix all labored right here.
All this, plus the truth that it’s free, far more secure, and that it helps multi-device connections, makes this an actual triple menace. And United is concentrated on getting this expertise out to its entire fleet, but it surely’s going to take a while.
Concerning its mainline plane – similar to this 737-800, in addition to the 757, 767, 777, 787, and Airbus fashions – Mara Palcisco shared, “We’re beginning sluggish to go quick so we will excellent the set up, and from there we plan to go fairly quick.” United is beginning with the 737-800 and estimates it may set up it on 15 of those jets a month.
And Palcisco did share some perception into the set up course of on these larger, mainline jets: “We’re going to begin the installs by leaving the ray-dome on and putting in the Starlink system. We deactivate the present system, set up the Starlink, and on the subsequent base-check, we’ll take the ray-dome off.”
The rationale for the cut up is that Starlink installations may be accomplished in a couple of days, whereas eradicating the previous antenna is a little more of a course of. A base examine can be an extended pull from service.
And Starlink, right here, identical to at house, works by connecting to low-earth-orbiting satellites about 350 miles above the Earth. That’s in comparison with the older satellites, that are 22,000 miles above the Earth. A Starlink connection may be despatched 70 instances backwards and forwards in only one beam, in comparison with the older fashions. That’s sort of nuts, and because of these connection varieties, you gained’t discover an interruption as you progress from satellite tv for pc to satellite tv for pc, and it may go far more simply via storms or heavy climate.
So you’ll be able to count on it to start increasing on these mainline jets as we march in the direction of 2026, and it is going to be on 300 regional jets by the tip of 2025 – it’s at the moment on 170 United Categorical regional jets.
It was a terrific expertise, and one which I can’t wait to make use of once more. Between not having working Wi-Fi on my preliminary United flight and it being fairly sluggish on the flight house, the Starlink-equipped Boeing 737-800 was fairly the deal with and units a brand new baseline for in-flight Wi-Fi.
Lastly, whereas this was not a full flight, in that each seat was not stuffed, every passenger introduced a number of units. On the very least, we weren’t making it straightforward for the system. Suffice to say, I don’t count on there to be main variations versus a full flight by way of connectivity.
Milstead bolstered that Starlink was the proper associate to match United’s dimension and its fleet, “At any given level, now we have the scale of a small metropolis on the bottom, so we want loads of dimension and scale to assist our world community, particularly in our hubs, of what number of passengers are going to be accessing the community.” He famous that the scale of low-earth orbiting satellites within the Starlink community and the protection they supply had been key.
For now, it’s a little bit of luck to be on a United flight with Starlink enabled, however for those who do, you’ll get a style of the longer term and be crossing your fingers each time you fly once more to get it. And your pockets shall be fairly completely happy as nicely.
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