Pay for wifi to watch movies?!?
Feb 15, 2019, 2:39 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2001
Programs: Alaska Tanzanite 100K
Posts: 3,858
Pay for wifi to watch movies?!?
Man how times have changed. Didn't realize how evil United has become.
On YVR-Den and planned on watching a movie, made sure I had the latest app, and when I select a movie it puts me on the app page to buy wifi... OUCH!
FWIW I'm an IT professional & know how all this works. I've restarted 4x, cleared cache, etc...
On YVR-Den and planned on watching a movie, made sure I had the latest app, and when I select a movie it puts me on the app page to buy wifi... OUCH!
FWIW I'm an IT professional & know how all this works. I've restarted 4x, cleared cache, etc...
Feb 15, 2019, 4:03 pm
#5
Join Date: May 2012
Programs: UA
Posts: 1,098
Man how times have changed. Didn't realize how evil United has become.
On YVR-Den and planned on watching a movie, made sure I had the latest app, and when I select a movie it puts me on the app page to buy wifi... OUCH!
FWIW I'm an IT professional & know how all this works. I've restarted 4x, cleared cache, etc...
On YVR-Den and planned on watching a movie, made sure I had the latest app, and when I select a movie it puts me on the app page to buy wifi... OUCH!
FWIW I'm an IT professional & know how all this works. I've restarted 4x, cleared cache, etc...
Feb 15, 2019, 5:01 pm
#8
Moderator: United Airlines
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Plat 1.995MM, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott Plat/LT Gold, Hilton Silver, IHG Plat
Posts: 66,832
PDE content streams from the plane's server and not via a connection to the ground (which is needed for gmail). The two are mostly inrelated unless the plane's server is down. Very common for PDE to be working but no internet.
Feb 15, 2019, 6:01 pm
#10
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: NYC, BLR, LHR, SIN and a few others
Programs: UA 1K 1.01 MM
Posts: 1,245
Feb 15, 2019, 6:28 pm
#11
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2001
Programs: Alaska Tanzanite 100K
Posts: 3,858
Lady across aisle had same problem.
On my tablet, I'd click on "entertaintment", would tell me to click on a link to a website to "preview what's available on your flight". Website comes up, with HUGE selection of movies, click on movie, warning about the app is there, click to "watch". Then get a black screen about the app, and to click "here" to open it up in the app, or i need to purchase wifi to download the UA app (which, I triple checked was current before pushback). Then when it opens the app, its the page for wifi payments. Can't get around that.
Then click back on entertainment, rinse, spin, repeat.
so I bought the 30 minute package for $9 -- still wouldn't load the movies.
I rebooted my Samsung Tab A three times. I cleared the cache three times. Did a HARD reboot. Still nothing. VPN off.
lady across aisle also couldn't watch movies. Said it was like this on her flight from San Fran to Vancouver earlier.
On my tablet, I'd click on "entertaintment", would tell me to click on a link to a website to "preview what's available on your flight". Website comes up, with HUGE selection of movies, click on movie, warning about the app is there, click to "watch". Then get a black screen about the app, and to click "here" to open it up in the app, or i need to purchase wifi to download the UA app (which, I triple checked was current before pushback). Then when it opens the app, its the page for wifi payments. Can't get around that.
Then click back on entertainment, rinse, spin, repeat.
so I bought the 30 minute package for $9 -- still wouldn't load the movies.
I rebooted my Samsung Tab A three times. I cleared the cache three times. Did a HARD reboot. Still nothing. VPN off.
lady across aisle also couldn't watch movies. Said it was like this on her flight from San Fran to Vancouver earlier.
Feb 15, 2019, 7:05 pm
#13
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: The place where it gets so hot in the summer some planes can't take off.
Programs: Marriott LT Titanium, WoH Globalist, National EE, United Platinum
Posts: 1,446
The PDE system wasn't working correctly then... this is the page you get when it's offline. You don't need to pay for wifi to access movies. Sometimes the system breaks though.
Feb 15, 2019, 7:26 pm
#14
Join Date: Jan 2016
Programs: UA 1K; *G, AA Plat
Posts: 1,700
Lady across aisle had same problem.
On my tablet, I'd click on "entertaintment", would tell me to click on a link to a website to "preview what's available on your flight". Website comes up, with HUGE selection of movies, click on movie, warning about the app is there, click to "watch". Then get a black screen about the app, and to click "here" to open it up in the app, or i need to purchase wifi to download the UA app (which, I triple checked was current before pushback). Then when it opens the app, its the page for wifi payments. Can't get around that.
Then click back on entertainment, rinse, spin, repeat.
so I bought the 30 minute package for $9 -- still wouldn't load the movies.
I rebooted my Samsung Tab A three times. I cleared the cache three times. Did a HARD reboot. Still nothing. VPN off.
lady across aisle also couldn't watch movies. Said it was like this on her flight from San Fran to Vancouver earlier.
On my tablet, I'd click on "entertaintment", would tell me to click on a link to a website to "preview what's available on your flight". Website comes up, with HUGE selection of movies, click on movie, warning about the app is there, click to "watch". Then get a black screen about the app, and to click "here" to open it up in the app, or i need to purchase wifi to download the UA app (which, I triple checked was current before pushback). Then when it opens the app, its the page for wifi payments. Can't get around that.
Then click back on entertainment, rinse, spin, repeat.
so I bought the 30 minute package for $9 -- still wouldn't load the movies.
I rebooted my Samsung Tab A three times. I cleared the cache three times. Did a HARD reboot. Still nothing. VPN off.
lady across aisle also couldn't watch movies. Said it was like this on her flight from San Fran to Vancouver earlier.
And you paid for WiFi and it still didn’t work.
Shouldn’t this kind of give you the hint that it’s not the WiFi being bought / not bought that’s the issue?
FYI read the other forum; United broke IFE for computers / tablets. Many have expressed that they’ve experienced issues starting late 2018.
Feb 15, 2019, 11:28 pm
#15
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: SAN
Programs: UA-1K, AA-Gold, HH-Gold, MR - Gold, HY-Explorist
Posts: 222
I ran into this problem once. This means that the app isn't registering that you were on the flight. I seem to recall that I solved it by making sure that the DNS servers were allowed to be automatically set instead of the DNS server I had inputted to see if it would improve speed (it didn't). Of course this was a while ago, so I may be totally off base