While we’ll have to mark this as “developing” for now, here’s some news that most people will probably consider to be positive…
United now offering free Wi-Fi on Viasat & Panasonic jets?
United Airlines is currently aggressively rolling out free Starlink Wi-Fi throughout its fleet, and installation is supposed to be complete by the end of 2027. Starlink is an absolute game changer in terms of the speeds that it can offer.
The issue, of course, is that Starlink isn’t yet available on most planes. So those traveling on non-Starlink aircraft have been not only dealing with slower Wi-Fi speeds, but they’ve also had to pay for the service.
While there hasn’t yet been any sort of an official announcement, it appears that United may quietly be rolling out free Wi-Fi at the moment, across the board? Many people on Reddit report that Wi-Fi is now free on most United flights, including those operated by planes with Panasonic and Viasat Wi-Fi, so this includes many long haul flights as well (thanks to View from the Wing for flagging this).
There has been no announcement so far, and there are also some counterpoints (since it’s typically not “switched on” for all aircraft instantly). However, a vast majority of data points suggest that Wi-Fi has been free since yesterday.
This isn’t necessarily promoted in the way you expect. Instead, when you log into your MileagePlus account in the Wi-Fi portal, you may be given the option to connect at no cost. This seems to be unrelated to elite status or the class of service people are traveling in. So we’ll see how this goes, but it sounds like at least a majority of people are reporting seeing this.
Interestingly, it seems like free Wi-Fi is being turned on at the same time that the T-Mobile Wi-Fi benefit on United is being discontinued.
Free Wi-Fi on more aircraft is great news, mostly!
If United does in fact turn on free Wi-Fi throughout its fleet, that’ll be quite the game changer for the airline, as Delta’s competitive advantage for Wi-Fi continues to decrease, and arguably even go away.
Admittedly free Wi-Fi — especially on non-Starlink aircraft — is a double-edged sword. Nobody wants to pay for something, but when bandwidth is limited, you very much have a supply and demand issue. Is it better for those who really value Wi-Fi to be able to pay $8-10 to limit use of others, or is it better if everyone gets free but (likely) very slow Wi-Fi?
United really is going from worst to first with Wi-Fi, even though it’s a process. By late 2027, United should have Starlink Wi-Fi on all planes, while Delta won’t have next generation Wi-Fi on a single plane (Delta plans to introduce Amazon’s new Leo Wi-Fi, which will go live at some point in 2028, absolute best case scenario). And while I’m sure someone will be by shortly to suggest that Viasat is “high speed,” there’s simply zero comparison between that and Starlink.
Bottom line
While we’ll see how this plays out, many reports suggest that United is now offering free Wi-Fi even on planes without Starlink Wi-Fi, like those with Panasonic and Viasat. With American and Delta both offering free Wi-Fi on most aircraft, this is a major development for United. The challenge is that with limited bandwidth and an increase in use, you can also expect speeds to get worse.
If this free Wi-Fi does in fact stick around, that’s very exciting. But most exciting is what’s down the road, when all United planes have Starlink Wi-Fi.
What do you make of this United Wi-Fi development? If you’ve flown United since yesterday, were you offered free Wi-Fi when logging in?
