May 22, 2013, 7:52 am
Last edit by: gengar
Wifi Completion Status (Last Updated: 1/16/2015)
United Wi-Fi installation
Mainland USA
Worldwide Coverage
Worldwide Coverage Area
Satellite coverage may experience outages for reasons such as government regulations, weather and switching between satellite regions.
Gogo (PS Flights) Coverage Area
Pricing Data Points
City Pair / ~ Duration / Standard Cost / Premium Cost / Comments on Quality
747-400 (Panasonic):
A319/A320 (Panasonic):
City Pair / ~ Duration / Standard or Limited Access Cost / Premium or Full Access Cost / Comments on Quality
737s (Thales LiveTV): [prices are per-hour]
United Wi-Fi installation
Mainland USA
- B737 - 187/253 Complete (74%)
- B757 - 26/133 Complete (20%)
Worldwide Coverage
- A319 - 55/55 Complete (100%)
- A320 - 97/97 Complete (100%)
- B747 - 24/24 Complete (100%)
- B767 - 2/51 Complete (4%)
- B777 - 42/74 Complete (57%)
- B787 - 3/14 Complete (21%)
Worldwide Coverage Area
Gogo (PS Flights) Coverage Area
Pricing Data Points
City Pair / ~ Duration / Standard Cost / Premium Cost / Comments on Quality
747-400 (Panasonic):
- SFO-FRA / 10 hrs / ?? / $22.99 / (5/2013) Peak speed was 6.5Mbps down, 2Mbps up. 700ms latency. awesome. (unavaca)
- HNL-NRT / 8 hrs / $14.99 / $22.99 / The service worked all the way across the pacific, I was surprised at how reliable it was. The speediest I did topped out at .26mb, hardly "premium", but if you're ok with general web browsing and chatting with iMessage, it worked like a champ.
- LAX-SYD / 14 hrs / $16.99 / No premium options. (Col Ronson) 3Mbps download speed test, worked for 95% of flight
- SFO-HKG / 15 hrs / $16.99 / No premium option / (1/2014) (unavaca) speedtest immediately after wi-fi was available gave 700ms, 7Mbit down, 0.5Mbit up
- BKK-NRT / 5 hr / $16.99 / No premium option / (SS255)
- PEK-SFO / 11 hr / $16.99 / No premium option / Net access kept going down over the Pacific / Ookla speedtest 3.09 Mbps down, 0.23 Mbps up, 894ms RTT.
A319/A320 (Panasonic):
- EWR-SFO / 6 hrs / $12.99 / $19.99 (IIRC)
- EWR-SFO / 6 hrs / $14.99 / no premium option (3/2014) (greg99) speedtest 2498kbps d/l and an awesome 95kbps u/l (not a typo) 578ms latency
- SFO-PHL / ~5.5 hrs / $14.99 / no premium option (4/2014) (qisu) didn't do speed test. good part of the flight had slow speed or no connection at all.
- PHL-SFO / 6 hrs / $12.99 / no premium option (4/2014) (qisu) speedtest 2-3megabits down.
- PHL-IAH / 4 hrs / $9.99 / $12.99 (IIRC, standard may have been $7.99?)
- PHL-IAH / 3 hrs / $6.99 / no premium option [10/2013]
- ORD-LAS / 3.5 hrs / $7.99 / No premium option. (lenscap)
- ORD-SEA / 4 hrs / $9.99 / No premium option. (qisu)
- ORD-LAX / 4 hrs / $8.99 / No premium option / speedtest peak 3mbps, average 600kbps to 1.5mbps
- ORD-YVR / 4 hrs / $8.99 / No premium option / speedtest 3.86 Mbps to 10.70 Mbps down / 0.18 to 0.37 Mbps up - very reliable throughout the flight
- IAD-LAX / 5 hrs / $12.99 / No premium option / speedtest peak 1.5mbps, average 400kbps to 800kbps, worked for 80% of flight but pretty spotty at times, but at least FA announced signal was poor
- IAD-SEA / 5 hrs / $12.99 / No premium option / A319
- SFO-LAX / 1 hr / $3.99 / No premium option / A319 (greg99)
- SFO-ORD / 4 hr / $9.99 / No premium option / A320 / Pretty reliable, up most of the flight
- IAH-SEA / 4.5 hrs / $8.99 / no premium option A320 (6/2014) (qisu) speedtest 5megabits down, 0.2 megabits up.
City Pair / ~ Duration / Standard or Limited Access Cost / Premium or Full Access Cost / Comments on Quality
737s (Thales LiveTV): [prices are per-hour]
- IAH-TPA / ?? / $1 / $2 / (2/2014) (ssullivan) 23-25Mbps downstream (Premium/full access service). No service over Gulf of Mexico.
- MIA-EWR / 2 hr / $1 / $2 / (3/2014) (hirohito888) 16Mbps down, 1Mbps up [not sure if this is for the regular or full access]
- PDX-IAH / 4 hr / $1 / $2 / (4/2014) (qisu) regular was very slow, speed test about 100kilobits down.
- SEA-IAH / 4 hr / $1 / $2 / (5/2014) (edcho) full access was speedy. 22 Mbps down and 2 Mbps up. Ping was 700ms.
- SEA-IAH / 4 hr / $1 / $2 / (6/2014) (qisu) full access, 5-15 Mbps down, 0.2 Mbps up.
United Launches Satellite-Based Wi-Fi Service
Mar 6, 2015, 8:15 pm
#587
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Delaware
Programs: UA Mileage Plus, Amtrak Guest Rewards
Posts: 1,393
Keeping users happy with performance: I mIght have to agree with this from a personal ajenda standpoint. Since I'm willing to pay $25.00 on a TPAC for the faster wifi, if the higher price keeps others away, it's more bandwidth for me.
Mar 17, 2015, 7:17 pm
#588
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: CMH
Programs: UA 1K, 1MM, HH Diamond, Marriott Gold
Posts: 745
More training needed
I flew UA 570 today (IAH-SFO) and really wish UA would train their FAs better. I and other passengers on the flight were getting 403 Forbidden errors for the unitedwifi.com site but united.com was fine. The wifi connection was working but the sign on was broken. I mentioned it to a FA and the purser who "turned it on" which killed the SSID. I mentioned it no longer worked and they cycled it again, but back the off. I gave up and figured my customers were used to me not being online.
Training goes a long way and it seems more is needed.
Training goes a long way and it seems more is needed.
Mar 17, 2015, 7:54 pm
#589
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: SGF
Programs: AS, AA, UA, AGR S (former 75K, GLD, 1K, and S+, now an elite peon)
Posts: 23,194
I flew UA 570 today (IAH-SFO) and really wish UA would train their FAs better. I and other passengers on the flight were getting 403 Forbidden errors for the unitedwifi.com site but united.com was fine. The wifi connection was working but the sign on was broken. I mentioned it to a FA and the purser who "turned it on" which killed the SSID. I mentioned it no longer worked and they cycled it again, but back the off. I gave up and figured my customers were used to me not being online.
Training goes a long way and it seems more is needed.
Training goes a long way and it seems more is needed.
Mar 18, 2015, 6:48 am
#590
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: CMH
Programs: UA 1K, 1MM, HH Diamond, Marriott Gold
Posts: 745
Dare to dream I guess....
Mar 18, 2015, 7:18 am
#591
Suspended
Join Date: Jun 2012
Programs: UA PP, AA, DL, BA, CX, SPG, HHonors
Posts: 2,002
just flew 8 hour OSL-EWR had WiFi the whole way for $16.99 flat inc tax .... zero connection issues ... switching between iPad and iPhone, and fast enough for 360p stream
too bad VoIP was blocked
too bad VoIP was blocked
Mar 18, 2015, 9:06 am
#592
Join Date: Sep 1999
Location: SF Bay Area
Programs: UA 1K MM, Accor Plat, Htz PC, Natl ExEm, other random status
Posts: 2,876
I flew UA 570 today (IAH-SFO) and really wish UA would train their FAs better. I and other passengers on the flight were getting 403 Forbidden errors for the unitedwifi.com site but united.com was fine. The wifi connection was working but the sign on was broken. I mentioned it to a FA and the purser who "turned it on" which killed the SSID. I mentioned it no longer worked and they cycled it again, but back the off. I gave up and figured my customers were used to me not being online.
Training goes a long way and it seems more is needed.
Training goes a long way and it seems more is needed.
Greg
Mar 18, 2015, 10:04 pm
#593
Join Date: Oct 2002
Programs: United Premier 1K
Posts: 1,230
Currently in the air SFO-ICN.
Cost was $19.99. No option for premium service.
Connection was relatively stable for most of the flight, but has gotten spotty for some reason as we approached the coast of Japan.
Cost was $19.99. No option for premium service.
Connection was relatively stable for most of the flight, but has gotten spotty for some reason as we approached the coast of Japan.
Mar 18, 2015, 10:44 pm
#594
Join Date: Feb 2015
Posts: 355
Mar 19, 2015, 10:55 am
#595
Join Date: Nov 2014
Posts: 34
Hopefully the same can occur on ORD - HKG this weekend.
Mar 19, 2015, 11:09 am
#596
Join Date: Feb 2015
Posts: 355
I didn't run speedtest on a LHR - IAD flight in January but I was able to VPN into work, run Bloomberg Anywhere, and listen to spotify about 39k feet above the atlantic. It was fantastic to drop e-mails on the team on a friday afternoon when they thought I would be disconnected flying home.
Hopefully the same can occur on ORD - HKG this weekend.
Hopefully the same can occur on ORD - HKG this weekend.
Mar 19, 2015, 11:45 am
#597
Join Date: Aug 2002
Programs: UA 1K & 1MM/AA Gold & 1MM/HH Gold/Marriott Titanium
Posts: 2,924
Cost $16.99 on EWR-HKG and back and worked like a charm!
Mar 23, 2015, 6:48 pm
#598
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: 4éme
Posts: 12,043
Today on UA998 BRU-EWR, the flight was advertised as having WiFi but it wasn't available in flight.
Mar 31, 2015, 7:04 pm
#600
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: BMG
Programs: UA Gold 1MM, HH Diamond, Hyatt Explorist, IHG Plat, Bonvoy Gold
Posts: 226
Consistent problems accessing unitedwifi.com portal on A319/320
I am 4 for 4 on having problems with Wi-Fi and Personal Device Entertainment on my A319/320 flights in the past two weeks. The funny thing is that the failure condition is always exactly the same:
1. Once we hit 10,000 feet, I am able to connect to the United_Wi-Fi SSID and pull up the unitedwifi.com web site in my browser to select a movie to watch or pay for Internet access.
2. After about 10 minutes, the unitedwifi.com portal no longer responds. If I'm watching a movie, it continues to play, but afterwards, trying to point my browser back to unitedwifi.com to pick another movie or pay for Internet access just causes the browser to hang. If I paid for Internet access during the ~10 minutes that the unitedwifi.com portal was accessible, it continues to work, but my browser hangs if I try to go back to unitedwifi.com. If I haven't paid for Internet access, I can go to united.com or use the United app just fine, but cannot open unitedwifi.com.
Basically, the unitedwifi.com portal becomes unresponsive after about 10 minutes. This happens on all of my devices (iPhone, iPad, MacBook), and also seems to happen to everyone around me who is trying to use the system.
On my last flight, the purser reset the system, which restored things again for about 10-15 minutes, and then the same problem occurred.
Are any others seeing this same behavior? It has been so consistent for me lately that it seems like it must be some sort of systemic problem.
1. Once we hit 10,000 feet, I am able to connect to the United_Wi-Fi SSID and pull up the unitedwifi.com web site in my browser to select a movie to watch or pay for Internet access.
2. After about 10 minutes, the unitedwifi.com portal no longer responds. If I'm watching a movie, it continues to play, but afterwards, trying to point my browser back to unitedwifi.com to pick another movie or pay for Internet access just causes the browser to hang. If I paid for Internet access during the ~10 minutes that the unitedwifi.com portal was accessible, it continues to work, but my browser hangs if I try to go back to unitedwifi.com. If I haven't paid for Internet access, I can go to united.com or use the United app just fine, but cannot open unitedwifi.com.
Basically, the unitedwifi.com portal becomes unresponsive after about 10 minutes. This happens on all of my devices (iPhone, iPad, MacBook), and also seems to happen to everyone around me who is trying to use the system.
On my last flight, the purser reset the system, which restored things again for about 10-15 minutes, and then the same problem occurred.
Are any others seeing this same behavior? It has been so consistent for me lately that it seems like it must be some sort of systemic problem.