Airline Wi-Fi is one of those amenities that sounds settled until you're actually sitting in the seat watching a message refuse to leave your phone.

We flew United for our February 2026 Baltimore-area trip. By my assessment, the airfare was reasonably priced. The flight was delayed, but the part I remember most clearly was the connectivity.

THE FEATURE WAS THERE.

Free Wi-Fi was available on our flight, and messaging was part of the onboard connectivity proposition. That's a meaningful amenity when it works: travel time becomes useful time, or at least time when you can tell somebody on the ground that you're delayed.

THE CONNECTION WAS BARELY THERE.

During our flight, the Wi-Fi rarely worked well for us. Most outgoing messages didn't send reliably. Incoming messages sometimes appeared unpredictably, as if they'd been stuck in the literal clouds before finally dropping onto the phone.

That's a firsthand performance observation from one flight, not a claim that United Wi-Fi performs this way across its network. Aircraft, route, equipment and conditions can all matter. We are reviewing what happened to us.

An amenity doesn't become useful because it's listed. It becomes useful when the customer can actually use it.

“INCLUDED” ISN'T THE FINISH LINE.

Travel companies understandably advertise included features. Customers experience outcomes. If Wi-Fi is free but unreliable enough that messages routinely fail, the price of the feature isn't the important question anymore.

The useful question becomes: could I depend on it? On this flight, we couldn't.

FLASHFORCAST // BOTTOM LINE

DON'T JUST CHECK THE FEATURE BOX.

Reasonable airfare helped. A delay hurt. Free connectivity sounded good. Unreliable connectivity reduced its value substantially.

“Does this airline offer Wi-Fi?” and “Could I actually use the Wi-Fi?” are two different review questions. FlashForcast cares about the second one.