United Airlines has announced a major milestone in its rollout of Starlink, its high-speed inflight Wi-Fi service, which is now available on more than half of its daily flights as of 12 November, in time for Thanksgiving and the start of the holiday travel season. The airline expects to have Starlink on nearly 64% of its daily flights by the end of 2026 and to complete installations across its fleet by the end of 2027.

United defines the Thanksgiving holiday travel period as running from 19 November to 1 December 2026, over which it expects more than 6.6 million customers to travel. Travellers can use the airline’s Starlink Wi-Fi tracker to check whether their upcoming flight is equipped with the service up to three days before departure. Free for MileagePlus members, Starlink lets customers stay connected throughout their flight across multiple devices, whether streaming live football games and Thanksgiving Day parades, placing a last-minute grocery delivery order, shopping Black Friday sales, or staying in touch with friends and family. Through United’s collaborations with DISH and Spotify, travellers can stream collegiate and professional football games live on Starlink-enabled seatback screens and on their personal devices simultaneously, and can pair their personal Spotify account to their seatback screen to pick up their favourite content where they left off.

Starlink is just one way United is making travel easier this holiday season. The airline’s app can save travellers up to 30 minutes at the airport through features such as real-time boarding updates, bag tracking, turn-by-turn walking directions and biometric bag check, while its ConnectionSaver technology holds eligible planes at the gate a few minutes longer to help customers with tight connections make their flights without affecting arrival times. The airline has also announced enhancements to its onboard menu, including new snackboxes and an expanded pre-order menu in the United Economy cabin, now available on flights over 900 miles, about 420 flights per day, along with new United Polaris menu options from chefs including Nancy Silverton, David Barzelay and Tomos Parry through its collaboration with Chef’s Table.

“From staying connected with Starlink Wi-Fi to making it easier for families to navigate the airport and know what to expect along the way, we’re focused on giving customers the tools and information they need to make every step of their journey easier and more enjoyable, especially during the busy holiday season,” said United’s Chief Customer Officer, David Kinzelman. “And with our teams across the airline ready to take great care of customers, we’re looking forward to helping make holiday travel as seamless as possible.”

United expects to fly an average of more than 500,000 customers a day on more than 4,800 daily flights between 19 November and 1 December. Friday 20 November is expected to be the busiest travel day ahead of the holiday, with more than 540,000 customers flying, while travel is expected to peak on Sunday 29 November, with around 600,000 customers taking to the skies.

DIGITAL TOOLS, ENTERTAINMENT AND ONBOARD FOOD

United’s app offers features including Virtual Gate, which provides real-time boarding progress, real-time bag tracking, automatic rebooking, airport navigation, and United Club location recommendations based on a customer’s departure gate and available lounge capacity at US hub airports. Its ConnectionSaver technology automatically scans flights for customers making tight connections to determine whether the connecting flight can be held without inconveniencing other passengers.

Onboard, United offers more than 2,500 hours of premium entertainment, including content from Apple TV, HBO Max, A24, Peacock and Spotify. The airline continues to install seatback screens across its fleet, with up to 1,000 aircraft expected to be fitted before the end of 2027, and is rolling out new aircraft with 27-inch, 4K OLED seatback screens, which it says are the largest among US carriers.

United has expanded fresh food preorders in United Economy to customers on shorter flights, giving up to 65,000 more customers a day access to the benefit, though preordered meals may not be available under certain circumstances. The airline has also refreshed its Tapas, Takeoff and Recline snackboxes with new selections, introduced a limited-time Wishes snackbox in collaboration with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and brought back Sprite Winter Spiced Cranberry on select flights alongside its Sleigh Bell Spritz cocktail, made by mixing the seasonal Sprite with vodka, a squeeze of lime and fresh cranberries.

United Airlines Holdings, Inc., the parent company of United Airlines, Inc., trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol “UAL” and describes itself as the largest airline in the world as measured by available seat miles.