Tag Archives for wifi.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn exploded during a launch pad test before an Amazon Leo satellite mission. Amazon’s airline Wi-Fi plan depends on getting thousands of satellites into orbit fast, and losing New Glenn launch capacity removes precious slack while Starlink-equipped rivals race ahead.
A United Airlines captain reportedly gave one passenger 30 seconds to disable an antisemitic Wi-Fi hotspot name or face law enforcement when the Newark–Miami flight landed. The hotspot was not a bomb threat, but just an offensive slogan. However it could provoke confrontations with passengers which make it a security issue for the flight.
Elon Musk confirms that Delta refused to equip its planes with Starlink because they require putting access behind a portal. SpaceX refuses to do that.
Delta just picked Amazon’s not-yet-operational Leo service to replace its current inflight Wi-Fi on 500 aircraft starting in 2028, giving Amazon a marquee airline customer and a badly needed foothold against Starlink. But for passengers, the more important point is that Delta is still moving slowly: United’s Starlink rollout is already underway and is expected to be much further along before Delta’s new system even starts showing up onboard.
American Airlines may finally be ready to bring back seatback TVs. That would reverse years of stripping screens from much of its fleet, and it comes just as the airline faces pressure to upgrade a Wi-Fi product that once stood out but has since been passed by rivals.
Southwest Airlines has dominated my home airport in Austin, but I’ve long avoided flying them—not for their bag fees or the boarding process, but because their unreliable wifi crushed productivity. Now, Southwest is finally fixing their biggest problem by rapidly rolling out Starlink wifi, promising internet speeds in the air that rival your home network.
Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle has confirmed what many flyers have waited years to hear: Wi-Fi is finally coming. After long resisting the cost of onboard connectivity, the ultra-low-cost carrier appears ready to join the rest of the industry online.
A Delta passenger endured a full-volume midnight Zoom call on a delayed flight—proof that America’s ban on in-flight calling punishes the wrong problem.
JetBlue is expected to announce a delay to equip some of its planes with Amazon wifi, as the launch airline for the product that’s supposed to be even faster than Starlink.
I’m really looking forward to these planes having functional wifi. It won’t be as good as the Starlink that United will be installing, and offering to passengers for free, but it will solve a pain point that’s kept me mostly off of them. However I’m going to have them even more off of my ‘do not fly’ list until the process is completed because the chance of no internet at all is even worse than slow internet.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
