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Comment by telotortium | Hacker News Reader

If Starlink becomes common enough on flights, I absolutely believe it will be a competitive disadvantage.

I have been flying a lot post Covid between it being a hobby of ours and consulting - I’m currently Platinum Medallion on Delta.

Frequent flyers choose their airlines for a lot of reasons - which airline has the most direct flights from their city, who has the best frequent flyer program, etc. The latency of the Internet is seldom a factor or the difference between 10Mbps and 50Mbps.

Non frequent flyers just buy the cheapest flights. The major three airlines make money off of business travelers, business and first class flights and credit cards.

would you choose a flight that's $200 more expensive because it has starlink?

If I’m flying for work and Starlink is that much better, quite possibly. My wife’s experience with other in-flight WiFi providers has been quite poor, often to the point that it barely works. Having said that, neither of us has been on a flight with Starlink yet.

Which airline? Airlines have been moving away from land based WiFi to much faster satellite WiFi for years

In this case, it was United, almost all transpacific flights. I've read that United has started to move to Starlink, but only on a few flights so far.

No but the airline might choose starlink. I think a gogo business install is on the hundreds of thousands and annual costs in the tens of thousand for their Eutelesat based system.

Maybe not $200, but $20-$50 for a cross country flight for sure.

I wouldn’t. I have literally never bought WiFi on a flight in the course of probably hundreds of flights. Good opportunity to unplug.

If a flight had in-flight Wi-Fi that cost $50 you'd pay for it? Most people I know balk at $10 even on an intercontinental flight

$10/hr for high speed internet on a flight doesn't seem that bad if you have a good use for it. A single drink can be more

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