United Airlines Is Adding a Money-Saving Perk to All Flights

United Airlines is becoming the latest major carrier to offer passengers free in-flight Wi-Fi, the company announced on Friday. With the move, United plans to outfit its fleet of over 1,000 jets with Starlink satellite internet, a subsidiary of Elon Musk's SpaceX.

The rollout will take several years, with testing to begin early next year and the first passenger flights with free Wi-Fi expected to take off later in 2025. The partnership with Starlink, which will bring complimentary high-speed connectivity to the airline's mainline and regional aircraft fleet, marks the industry's largest agreement of its kind.

The goal of the partnership is to give United customers "the same high-speed, low-latency internet service in the air that they enjoy on the ground." The new gate-to-gate connectivity will allow passengers to access live TV and streaming services, social media, shopping, gaming, and more; both simultaneously on seatback screens and personal devices.

"Everything you can do on the ground, you'll soon be able to do onboard a United plane at 35,000 feet, just about anywhere in the world," United CEO Scott Kirby said in a statement. "This connectivity opens the door for an even better inflight entertainment experience, in every seatback—more content, that's more personalized. United's culture of innovation is, once again, delivering big for our customers."

The announcement follows initiatives by carriers such as Delta and JetBlue, which already offer free in-flight Wi-Fi to passengers. Delta just announced back in August that it would be expanding its high-speed internet to international flights as part of the program rollout across its entire fleet. 

As The Points Guy notes, United currently uses four different Wi-Fi providers across its fleet, though the speed and reliability vary. The best performing is Viasat, which is installed on select Airbus A319s, Boeing 737-900s, 757s and the 737 MAX 8 and 9; while the slowest and least reliable provider is Wi-Fi Onboard, which is available on on regional jets. The integration of Starlink services is expected to catapult the connectivity experience from one of the worst to best across the industry.