United Passenger Scores Exit Row To Himself, Streams 5 Football Games At Once On Starlink


One United Airlines passenger recently struck gold on a flight, being allocated an exit row seat, and then making the most of Starlink connectivity onboard to stream not one, but five football games at once. Three of these were on the seatback entertainment, and then an additional two on personal devices on the fold-down tray table.

The major sports fan, named Chase Snyder, posted the quintuplet achievement on his X page, which has been quickly liked by thousands, and even picked up by the airline itself, boasting the experience on its own social media page. Chicago-based United first deployed Starlink on select aircraft from March last year; it now has plans to roll the service out across the majority of its mainline fleet, with forecasts having the airline to have around 880 of its planes equipped by the end of the year.

United Airlines Airbus aircraft on taxiway Credit: Wenjie Zheng | Shutterstock

Snyder was flying on a United flight recently when he was allocated a seat in the exit row. No other passengers occupied the same row on his side of the aircraft, leaving the three seatback entertainment screens spare. This led to Snyder springing into action and utilizing the onboard WiFi to stream multiple different games.

Despite having three screens all to himself, Snyder then used his laptop and tablet to stream two more games, shared the experience on his social media, and has been praised for the move by thousands.

United has turned Snyder’s actions into an advertisement for its onboard experience, noting that Starlink is a “game-changer” that allowed the diehard fan to enjoy CFB Saturday at 30,000 feet.

United Airlines aircraft at Boston Credit: Wirestock Creators | Shutterstock

United is forecast to have more than 880 aircraft equipped with Starlink by the end of this year. This is down from earlier projections that the airline would have more than 1,000 aircraft fitted with the satellite internet service by Musk’s SpaceX. In the carrier’s Q2 results, United confirmed more than 450 aircraft were already equipped.

By the end of next year, United plans to have all of its aircraft fitted with Starlink. The service is provided free for passengers and provides speeds of up to 250 Mbps on regional jets, which is up to 50 times faster than before.

United opted for Starlink instead of other providers due to the significantly faster connection speeds. It provides reliable coverage even over isolated regions or vast oceans, where other traditional in-flight WiFi can fail. For Starlink, its recent earnings suggested that its revenue from airline WiFi accounts for 10% of its total income.

United Airlines Boeing 767 with blue sky Credit: Carlos Yudica | Shutterstock

With United on the home stretch for its full deployment of Starlink across its entire fleet of more than 1,100 aircraft by the end of next year, this marks the first of the Big Three to offer this high-speed onboard connectivity across its complete fleet. The only other US airline to have achieved such a feat is that of JetBlue, which provides connectivity from the moment you leave the gate.

Fort Worth-based American Airlines is expected to expand its Starlink offering to its entire aircraft fleet, a change from the original plans where it would only be offered on its Airbus family of planes.

Delta Air Lines rejected Starlink, as the SkyTeam carrier looked to gain a stronger integration with the Amazon ecosystem. This will see the airline ultimately gain lower-cost pricing while, at the same time, providing higher bandwidth and sharing additional features such as Amazon Prime, other retail initiatives, and a range of online gaming.



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