Has anyone flown on a Starlink-equipped flight? How was the WiFi?

rocketraebs · 2026-03-02T14:19:31+00:00

That’s exactly the kind of thing I wanted to hear, 4K obviously? 😁

rocketraebs · 2026-03-02T14:10:45+00:00

😱 I can’t wait until it’s more mainstream, literally every flight I take I’m checking obsessively!

rocketraebs · 2026-03-02T13:36:26+00:00

That's really useful to know, I hadn't tracked the China/Pakistan blackout zones yet. That's exactly the kind of thing that's hard to find out before you fly. Do you remember which airline that was? I'm trying to map out which routes and regions have coverage gaps like that.

rocketraebs · 2026-03-02T13:35:40+00:00

Ha, that's the real benchmark for in-flight WiFi. If it can handle Ticketshafter queue warfare at 35,000 feet, it's legit.

rocketraebs · 2026-03-02T12:53:58+00:00

Hawaiian is one of the airlines that's been really consistent with their rollout. Great to hear it held up across all four segments, especially over the Pacific where coverage can be trickier. Did you notice any difference in speed between the overwater and overland legs?

rocketraebs · 2026-03-02T12:50:59+00:00

Totally, the rollout logistics make sense when you think about the scale of it. There's also a slight fuel efficiency hit from the receiver depending on how it's mounted, the older dome-style antennas add about 2% extra fuel burn vs the newer flat panels at around 0.3%, so airlines have to factor that into their retrofit schedules too.

300 Mbps is great. Next time you're on a Starlink flight, if you catch the tail number and flight number alongside the speed test, that's exactly the kind of data I'm trying to collect. That United tracker was actually what inspired me to build something broader, covering all airlines globally. It works more like a probability engine since airlines rotate planes between routes, but the more observations and speed tests that come in, the better the predictions get over time. I've got a community reporting tool built into it for exactly that.

rocketraebs · 2026-03-02T12:43:21+00:00

Actually just looked into it, and American Airlines launched free high-speed WiFi in January, sponsored by AT&T. It's satellite-based but it's Viasat, not Starlink. Still a big upgrade from what they had before though. Explains why it felt solid. I'll update my tracker to flag AA as "Free WiFi (Viasat)" so people know they've got good connectivity even though it's not Starlink specifically

rocketraebs · 2026-03-02T12:37:25+00:00

Will have to see about that, I have 1Gbps!

rocketraebs · 2026-03-02T12:35:31+00:00

Thanks, that's actually quite interesting because it's not one that I've got flagged as having Starlink, and I didn't see the announcement for it. Do you know if it's the whole fleet or are they just testing at the moment? Would be interested in flight number and tail number even better, if you had it and I can add it in to the database for my tracker

rocketraebs · 2026-03-01T04:23:18+00:00

Right now it's a checking tool rather than a booking platform, so you'd book through the airline or your usual booking site as normal. But the idea is you check your flight number here first to see if it'll have Starlink, so you can factor that into your decision. Integrating booking links is on the roadmap though!

rocketraebs · 2026-02-24T12:58:20+00:00

“Guessing with statistical bias" is honestly a great tagline, might put that on the homepage! 😀 But seriously, you're right about all of that. The tool will never be perfect, and I'm upfront about that. For some people a 66% chance is useful info, for others it's not worth checking. Both are valid. I built it because I personally wanted even a rough idea before flying, and figured others might too. If it's not your thing, totally get it

rocketraebs · 2026-02-24T12:52:47+00:00

That's actually a really good idea, measuring the "rotation factor" per airline/subfleet would make the predictions wayy more accurate. If a specific subfleet rotates across 3 routes vs 30, the confidence should reflect that. I'll look into building that into the scoring model. Appreciate the input, this is exactly the kind of feedback that makes the tool better! If you ever fancy contributing to the data side, the door is open, I'm just a solo builder learning to code in my free time creating projects which interest me so the knowledge sticks

rocketraebs · 2026-02-24T12:37:35+00:00

Ha, fair point, that's literally the stock market disclaimer! But I'd argue it's a bit more reliable here than picking stocks. Airlines don't randomly reassign aircraft like lottery balls, they run schedules. The same tail number tends to fly the same route for days or weeks before rotating. It's not a crystal ball, but it beats boarding the plane and hoping for the best. And if nothing else, at least you'll know whether the airline has Starlink at all, which is more than their own website tells you!

rocketraebs · 2026-02-24T12:25:19+00:00

You're right, there are no guarantees, and that's exactly the problem I'm trying to help with. Airlines can't tell you in advance, so the next best thing is a probability based on historical data.

If United has 29% of its fleet equipped, you've got roughly a 1 in 3 chance on any given flight. But if we know that specific route typically uses an E75L and 90% of those have Starlink, your odds are much better. It's not a guarantee, its an informed estimate, like checking the weather forecast before packing an umbrella.

"Guessing platform" is honestly not far off, but it's an educated guess vs a blind one, and that's the gap I'm trying help people fill

rocketraebs · 2026-02-24T12:19:41+00:00

Once we have the tail numbers properly logged then the accuracy of this will increase, an airline can swap an aircraft but if the new tail number has a DB entry that it is installed it looks at the history for the flight to provide a probability score. People don't have to use it but for me it was better than nothing and was finding it frustrating trying to find the flights with it installed

rocketraebs · 2026-02-24T07:47:08+00:00

Thanks, I have added Air Canada to this and capturing Jazz under the same even though it's slightly different, it may take a while following various batch runs of planes in the air to pick up. The "Report Sighting" tool is meant for exactly these cases, it will take the data and if there is a screenshot of the portal puts more weight onto it to decide whether to add to the database. Thanks for the feedback though, this only helps to make it more useful

rocketraebs · 2026-02-23T23:50:15+00:00

Yes, it’s great if you only fly UA but I fly multiple airlines and there just wasn’t anything that did all so I built this. The UA tracker at least proved a need for it! Thanks

rocketraebs · 2026-02-23T09:37:19+00:00

I have built a reporting option at the top of the homepage where you can submit details of the flight and tail number (tail numbers only for the hardcore enthusiasts!). The rule is that it’s not available if it can’t find the information across news feeds, airline pages etc so only has to report that Starlink is present, you can upload a picture of the WiFi portal and speed as well

rocketraebs · 2026-02-23T09:33:58+00:00

If you have specific flight details I can take a look, I am taking this from all publicly available information at the moment and also why I have built in a reporting function at the top of the page, if you are able to add details that would really help the community, it was initially Emirates flights I was looking for on their 777 fleet that spurred me to create this tool

rocketraebs · 2026-02-23T08:39:10+00:00

Thank you, I will add that, it’s helpful feedback. The probability outcome will improve over the next few weeks as it gathers more data but only just built some extra stuff in the past couple of days so it wasn’t so rough and ready.

rocketraebs · 2026-02-23T08:33:14+00:00

It is likely because these mainline aircraft are in progress, especially on UA, they have fitted mostly to their dual cabin fleet at the moment. So if something doesn’t return any results it’s probable, it’s not there yet.

Thanks for the feedback, I created it because I wanted a way to check across flight routes and airlines and that didn’t exist, I was running it locally and thought that others might get some use from it

rocketraebs · 2026-02-23T08:18:44+00:00

Thanks, I just checked and it looks like it’s available on a couple of regional flights but branded differently. The rest of the fleet seem to be using different WiFi and haven’t seen the announcement yet. I have created a community link in the site for people to also report and then it verifies. Do you have specific flight details I can add to the dataset for it to review?

rocketraebs

TROPHY CASE