mfirst

Currently 2 hours to go on den-ogg and able to post and browse in the middle of the pacific

slow but reasonable

didn’t sign up or pay for anything

hmmm.

WineCountryUA

t-mobile customer?

772HD?

mfirst

Not a t-mobile
I’m in the back but I think non-polaris but not HD
have taken this route many times this year and lucky to be able to consistently message

never tried wifi -

all of which I thought was very limited over the pacific.

80minutes out of ogg right now

Did a speedtest
0.9 mps down
2.2 mps up
ping ~1000

nomad420

Strange as I never get anything. They may as well make it free as it is as you can see very slow and on some flights not available.

WineCountryUA

UA 1736 DEN-OGG is a 772HD today with panasonic internet access, why free, not sure

mtofell

Not sure about United but back in the days before Alaska got their over-ocean game figured out they'd often let you use what you could. It would be very intermittent and slow but sometimes you'd get lucky. I'm guessing it's a similar thing.... basically, everyone would complain if they paid anything for the poor product.

emcampbe

In the 737s, used to (maybe still do) have free messaging (basic text, no images) and had push from some, but not all apps. This was if had airplane mode and wifi on, but not signed up, before even the free messaging option.

now that I’m on T-Mobile, have that plus more free anyway…not sure if that still works.

WineCountryUA

All UA aircraft do, when they have internet access

mfirst

I find the 737 over the pacific are very unpredictable even for messaging. Never bought internet. 777 seem to be more reliable but I never had free internet regardless

based upon when my emails came in it appeared to have been active for the entire flight

UA_Flyer

I have had a few flights with free wifi services. Not sure if they were test runs, but at least a couple were transpacific long haul flights. One was SIN to SFO.

WineCountryUA

Most 737s use the Thales system and only have CONUS coverage. No pacific / Hawaii coverage

Some 739s (regular and MAX) have the ViaSAT which will eventual be worldwide but present are limited to North America, TATL and Europe. This is the system UA is migrating to once the remaining satellites are in place (including an Asia/Pacific bird)

For the whole story, see United Wi-Fi Coverage | United Airlines

econ

I also remember one or two in recent memory that had free internet at some point going across one of the oceans (can’t remember if it was TATL or TPAC) but then stopped after an hour or so.

eng3

There was a promotion a while back where you get free internet for doing something. Maybe it was related to COVID and uploading your info. I forget exactly. Maybe they have something similar going on.

It could also be a glitch. I have had ONE flight to Europe where it was just working the whole time for free. Unfortunately this was going TO Europe so I slept most of the flight. This was well before the t-mobile thing. I have t-mobile but prepaid. I thought about upgrading but not worth it to me.

As for the WIFI itself, I've NEVER had a good experience. Flying back from Europe, I often am up the entire flight since it is daytime in both time zones. (everyone else seems to sleep). I'll buy WIFI. Sometimes, I can't even buy, sometimes I buy then it doesnt work at all (dead), sometimes it works for a period then goes dead for hours, sometimes it's just painfully slow to the point that it's unusable. I've never actually paid for WIFI because I've never had a full flight where it worked for the whole flight and have always request a refund. I wonder if they'll start thinking I'm abusing it. If they'd just get a working system, I'd happily pay.

The only other explanation is if you have some strange setup on your computer that allows you to bypass the system but then you'd have free internet on every flight. When WIFI first came out on UA, there were several ways to bypass the blocks but it didn't help much since the connection was even worse than it is now. Don't know about now.

drewguy

Had a pilot (or maybe purser) on recent flight from Japan say "wifi available for purchase, but with our flight path we may lose it for a few hours . . . so account for that in your purchasing decision"

LarryJ

As already answered, none of the 737s have any service over the Pacific. You can see the internet service maps at this link.

https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly...rage-maps.html

The text on that page isn't quite up to date. ALL MAX airplanes have Viasat, not just the MAX9, and some 737-800 and 737-900 have it as well. I *THINK* I flew a 737-700 with ViaSat, too. So, there have been some ViaSat conversations outside of the United Next upgrade process.

As a commuter, I'm riding in the cabin at least six times per month and always connect my phone with the free service for T-Mobile customers. On occasion, I've had my phone connect without going through the T-Mobile process will full data access. Seems like a glitch where a previous session somehow continues on a new airplane.

There is no switch on the airplane to give free internet service, like we had with the DTV service, though somebody can do it on their end as the price of internet on charters is $0.00. You go through the normal internet purchase process but the price is listed at $0.00 instead of $8.00.