Free Starlink Internet is coming to all of United's airplanes | Hacker News Reader

Free Starlink Internet is coming to all of United's airplanes

arstechnica.com

28 pointsthunderbong31 comments

Looks like I'm flying exclusively United when I can in 2025

Will take years to upgrade the entire fleet. Until then…T_T

I avoid UA because they intentionally sit families on different rows, with plenty of room to be sat together, to get them to pay $$ per member. I frequently travel with 2 children, and it's annoying when airlines do that.

Because charging for specific seating allows them to sell un-specific seats to cheapsters, who still manage to complain about it.

You are defending that asking more money for your children not to be alone is ok ?

In most companies, when you don’t book specific seats, the algorithm puts you alongside your children anyway.

Are you saying that spawning offspring should grant you privileges that other passengers shouldn't get?

I would say that.

Yes, and I would say that no other passenger would appreciate a full flight alongside an alone child.

You may have more control how that kid behaves though, rather than leaving it to the whim of its parent/s?

If a passenger cannot take care of themselves for whatever reason, I think they should be allowed to sit next to whoever takes care of them without having to pay extra.

Indeed and there already is a legal concept for that called a 'dependent'. And both the caregiver and dependent already receive special consideration under various laws and regulations. Requiring airlines to seat them together is both consistent with existing concepts, and just the right thing to do.

Are you saying you’d prefer to sit next to some rando’s kid?

I say "Yes" to both of you.

Children should have privileges adults don't have. As they aren't full independent adults, it's fair to give them special treatment. Nobody is born an adult, so every person in society will get these benefits at some point of their lives.

At the same time, I don't see why airliners shouldn't be able to charge less for tickets that are truly "we will put you whatever we want irrespective of your needs and wants". Children who need to be by their parents shouldn't buy these tickets, the same way children shouldn't buy adult shoes.

If having my children sit next to me is important then I expect to have to pay extra for this since this is mostly how airline pricing works. In other words, it isn't perfect in all use cases, like not every seat is next to a window and I may have to pay extra for this rather than have to take my chances.

There's a difference between "I want to pick exactly where we sit and am willing to pay extra for it", and "I want my family to sit together, but don't care where that is on the plane, and I'm already paying a lot for 4 tickets, so don't have extra budget to pay more to to pick where I sit."

Also, I can't imagine people who end up sitting next to a kid whose parent isn't nearby, or the stewards who have to deal with such children would be happy about the arrangement either.

Well I am not a marketing guy, but from the little I know, this is price discrimination between a group of 4 who do not mind sitting anywhere, and a group of 4 that must sit together. Sure, your needs may be higher, but each need has a price, and sitting together is one such need. Just need to plan the $$$$s for that.

Well, people generally don't like being on the receiving end of price discrimination. So you shouldn't be surprised when people refuse to fly with you because you charge you more to fly with them just because you have children with you.

Although, I wonder if maybe the real reason for this might be to discourage families from flying with them....

Place shuffling in planes is a novel "invention". Putting existing features behind a Paywall isn't being smart and innovative. it's a signal for to little competition and a cash grap.

Isn’t this only an issue with basic economy seats? I only buy standard economy seats and have no problem picking my own seat (albeit in the back of the plane).

Yup.

People pick the cheapest option possible and then complain that it’s not as good as the other options.

Man flying in the US really is the Wild West isn't it?

For reference on Singapore Airlines, the cheapest seats don't have free seat selection ($10 SGD I think to choose, but not 100% sure I've never flown with them without a child), but if you fly with a child you do get free seat selection, and I've never once encountered any airline that would not place travelling groups together.

It looks like maybe that is no longer the case for children under 12: https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/travel/accessibility-and-as...

I am sure they will help, and I have had positive experience with United the 1 time I had to make a change in the past year.

However, it is not always a straightforward solution. You are a family of 4, and the airline allots. you 2 + 2 (middle+aisle on one side, and aisle+middle on the other side) as that is efficient, but you would rather have window+middle+aisle + aisle. Or maybe vice versa.

basically an algorithm may not meet your needs, and while the airline can help adjust, it is an overhead in terms of personnel costs, and also if you decide to pick seats last minute when most of the seats are already allocated.

Just because the internet is free?

So it makes sense to pay a lot more for the always United tickets rather than the $10 fee for internet on the flight from some other company that had cheaper tickets?

Free can mean anything from "unlimited bandwidth for free for everyone" to "free limited/capped service with an add on premium bandwidth service for a fee".

Given that Starlink is still a relatively low bandwidth service and there would be hundreds of people wanting to stream Netflix etc. I'm guessing the latter might be more likely and perhaps better for those that want/need decent internet.

It's not the latter. The latter is what you used to have

They aren’t going to monetize that? I can’t believe it.

Dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41530769

Earlier:

United Airlines Taps Elon Musk's Starlink for In-Flight Wi-Fi

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41532121

Free.

At the point of use

Reply on news.ycombinator.com