Wifi?

[wendlle]

Do United flights from Australia to the USA have wifi at all?
I'm trying to work out what apps to put on my kids ipads, sadly most need internet.

 

[Anna]

Yes, there was wifi available on my recent MEL SFO flight with UA, but it was not free even for pax in J. Can't remember the cost as I didn't want it.

 

[wendlle]

Yes, there was wifi available on my recent MEL SFO flight with UA, but it was not free even for pax in J. Can't remember the cost as I didn't want it.

thanks for the reply - I won't be paying for it so will have to keep checking for apps that don't require the connection. I appreciate the reply.

 

[henrus]

Do United flights from Australia to the USA have wifi at all?

Yes all United flights from Australia to the US have Wifi.

They use the Panasonic wifi system so speeds are not blazing fast (was ~5mbps) but coverage is constant for the entire flight. Messaging is free when using apps like iMessage, WhatsApp, messenger etc (you just need to connect and select the free messaging plan).

They block some video streaming services but a VPN worked around that perfectly.

From Australia to the US they charge ~US$7 for one hour of access (this plan can be paused and unpaused as many times as you want) or a full flight pass is about US$30. You can also purchase a monthly subscription for US$69 which is not bad value given it covers all United flights for a month.

Finally some android phones will let you connect to a wifi network and then turn on the hotspot, my Pixel works well setup like this and I was able to purchase one full flight plan and use it on multiple devices at once (plus share with others travelling with me). Otherwise if you purchase it's limited to one active device at a time (if you want to change devices make sure you create an account and not check out as a guest).

Some more details can be found here:

https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly/travel/inflight/wifi.html