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
Oct 20, 2015, 10:48 pm
#631
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: IAH
Programs: *AG, Choice Privileges Elite Diamond, SPG Gold, La Quinta Returns Gold, Wyndham Rewards Gold
Posts: 466
Workaround found.
Just took UA 1503 IAH-PHX. This flight had a 739 with the Wifi configuration. I tried during the whole flight to pop a connection. Each time I tried, I got this error:
Service Temporarily Unavailable
The server is temporarily unavailable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.
Apache server at www.unitedwifi.com Port 80.
The united app did not work. And I tried to connect with the browser, which did not work. I tried rebooting the phone, to no avail. I tried switching off and on Wifi, turning off airplane mode, even turning on cellular data, but nothing had any impact.
I am using an Android phone with the Chrome browser. Is that the culprit? Or do I need to switch to a different browser? I think other people on the flight were able to connect; I see them watching videos during the flight.
Has anyone encountered this error, and if so, what did you do to get around it? Thanks.
Service Temporarily Unavailable
The server is temporarily unavailable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.
Apache server at www.unitedwifi.com Port 80.
The united app did not work. And I tried to connect with the browser, which did not work. I tried rebooting the phone, to no avail. I tried switching off and on Wifi, turning off airplane mode, even turning on cellular data, but nothing had any impact.
I am using an Android phone with the Chrome browser. Is that the culprit? Or do I need to switch to a different browser? I think other people on the flight were able to connect; I see them watching videos during the flight.
Has anyone encountered this error, and if so, what did you do to get around it? Thanks.
WIFI provisioning appears to be much more reliable on PCs. i have tried provisioning access on my laptop - and it works every time. So I will use t his technique: I will provision access on my Dell laptop, and then transfer service to my Android phone. That technique seems to work - generally.
The alternative is for UA to fix their issues with provisioning access on the Android phones, specifically those using the Jelly Bean version of Android. There are lots of things that have to be fixed by UA, particularly in the IT department; I don't know where this ranks in their priorities, but they really should fix this.
Oct 20, 2015, 10:51 pm
#632
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: IAH
Programs: *AG, Choice Privileges Elite Diamond, SPG Gold, La Quinta Returns Gold, Wyndham Rewards Gold
Posts: 466
What is the standard on other carriers? Do AA/DL charge for WIFI in their premium cabins?
Oct 22, 2015, 5:50 am
#634
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: PSM
Posts: 69,232
Oct 22, 2015, 7:57 am
#635
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: PHX
Programs: AS 75K; UA 1MM; Hyatt Globalist; Marriott LTP; Hilton Diamond (Aspire)
Posts: 56,450
I don't mind paying. It truly feels like an add on rather than part of the transport (unlike IFE). And if it were free, there would be less bandwidth available. The one thing I mind is the GoGo price gouging, though that may be about to change.
Oct 22, 2015, 7:08 pm
#636
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: SFO/SJC
Programs: UA Silver, Marriott Gold, Hilton Gold
Posts: 14,884
United Launches Satellite-Based Wi-Fi Service
Not sure if it's changed now, but TK did provide wifi for free to all pax, even in Y. Haven't flown TK in a bit, IIRC last time on a wifi equipped plane was probably Jan. 2014. Worked pretty consistently, too, even if a bit slow.
On NRT-IAH yesterday, and I didn't pay for it, but trying to access the UA app/website was horrendous. Painfully slow when it was working, and was on and off throughout the flight.
On NRT-IAH yesterday, and I didn't pay for it, but trying to access the UA app/website was horrendous. Painfully slow when it was working, and was on and off throughout the flight.
Oct 22, 2015, 7:36 pm
#637
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: PSM
Posts: 69,232
TK has it on a few planes. It works okay on those IME.
Access to the UA site is free but can also be rate-throttled rather than wide open. Judging the performance of the paid access based on the free united.com bits is likely to lead to results which are not necessarily realistic.
Access to the UA site is free but can also be rate-throttled rather than wide open. Judging the performance of the paid access based on the free united.com bits is likely to lead to results which are not necessarily realistic.
Feb 17, 2016, 6:47 am
#638
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 2,294
Not sure if it's changed now, but TK did provide wifi for free to all pax, even in Y. Haven't flown TK in a bit, IIRC last time on a wifi equipped plane was probably Jan. 2014. Worked pretty consistently, too, even if a bit slow.
On NRT-IAH yesterday, and I didn't pay for it, but trying to access the UA app/website was horrendous. Painfully slow when it was working, and was on and off throughout the flight.
On NRT-IAH yesterday, and I didn't pay for it, but trying to access the UA app/website was horrendous. Painfully slow when it was working, and was on and off throughout the flight.
Feb 17, 2016, 6:56 am
#639
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 2,294
I'm in the air now flying FRA to IAD. Internet option was $19.99 (only one offered) and works pretty well (so far).
On the way over (EWR to MXP) I think the price was $12.99 but I might have that wrong since I wasn't going to purchase it on an overnight flight.
Did a speedtest, too:
On the way over (EWR to MXP) I think the price was $12.99 but I might have that wrong since I wasn't going to purchase it on an overnight flight.
Did a speedtest, too:
Feb 17, 2016, 8:20 am
#640
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: IAH
Programs: *AG, Choice Privileges Elite Diamond, SPG Gold, La Quinta Returns Gold, Wyndham Rewards Gold
Posts: 466
No service over New Mexico, and no PDE, period.
1) I am trying to access the personal device entertainment now. I try to play a video, but it never gets to the first second of play time. The Chrome screen just flashes once, and goes back to 0:00.
I did look at the technical FAQs, and there is presently an issue with PDE on Chrome/Android devices. Is this a known error, and has anyone found a way around this?
2) Is there no service being offered over New Mexico, for any device? Is this state blacked out, for some reason? Is it because of all the military bases over this state?
Whenever I take an IAH-PHX hop, the service seems to die west of El Paso. It is really frustrating.
I did look at the technical FAQs, and there is presently an issue with PDE on Chrome/Android devices. Is this a known error, and has anyone found a way around this?
2) Is there no service being offered over New Mexico, for any device? Is this state blacked out, for some reason? Is it because of all the military bases over this state?
Whenever I take an IAH-PHX hop, the service seems to die west of El Paso. It is really frustrating.
Apr 23, 2016, 6:37 am
#641
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Northern Ireland
Posts: 722
How much will wifi be between BFS and EWR?
Apr 23, 2016, 7:33 am
#642
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: NYC / TYO / Up in the Air
Programs: UA GS 1.7MM, AA 2.1MM, EK, BA, SQ, CX, Marriot LT, Accor P
Posts: 6,302
Apr 23, 2016, 11:32 am
#643
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: LAX/TPE
Programs: United 1K, JAL Sapphire, SPG Lifetime Platinum, National Executive Elite, Hertz PC, Avis PC
Posts: 42,199
Is the service available (and reliable) on the EWR-HKG polar route that flies due north, then due south through Russia and China?
Apr 23, 2016, 6:06 pm
#644
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: CLE (mostly)
Programs: UA Plat, Hyatt Explorist, Mlife Gold, Starbucks Gold
Posts: 823
When I see another, I'll take a closer look and snap a photo.
I agree with this theory. It was absolutely dragging thru checking flight status on UA.com while on unpaid access. Decided to buy 30min of Internet to send a few emails, and as soon as I had purchased, the UA.com website was as fast as it is on the ground.
Last edited by WineCountryUA; Apr 24, 2016 at 10:15 pm Reason: merging consecutive posts by same member -- please use multi-quote
Apr 23, 2016, 6:13 pm
#645
Join Date: Apr 2016
Posts: 67
I will be traveling to Rio de Janiero. HAs anyone tried to use remote logins like Teamviewer or GOTOMYPC to access their computer back at home while on the WIFI on a United plane?