Flying United Soon? Here’s What to Expect with Its New Entertainment Upgrades

United Airlines passengers embarking on flights this year can look forward to an enhanced travel experience featuring an abundance of seatback screens, some boasting stunning 4K resolution and significantly improved Wi-Fi connectivity.

These upgrades are part of the airline’s commitment to revamping its already industry-leading inflight entertainment systems.

Dominic Green, the director of inflight entertainment at United, revealed exciting developments in the airline’s technology offerings.

The airline, which, according to its CEO Scott Kirby, is “The Best Airline in The History of Aviation,” has completed the installation of seatback screens on its 600th aircraft, a significant milestone in its modernization efforts across a sprawling fleet of 999 planes.

In an interview with The Points Guy, Green emphasized the airline’s ambitious goal to equip a total of 1,000 aircraft with these modern screens within the next couple of years, enhancing passenger comfort and enjoyment on their journeys.

United’s Bluetooth Connectivity

On more than 300 of these aircraft, including United’s new Boeing 737 MAX 8 and 9 planes and some Airbus A319s, passengers can use Bluetooth to connect their personal headphones, including Apple AirPods, to the screens and ditch the cheap airline-issued headphones.

United was the first U.S. airline to equip its entertainment systems with Bluetooth functionality back in 2021. Its competitors are just now catching up.

Photo: Courtesy of Emiliano Padilla

Delta currently only offers Bluetooth in the first-class cabins of its Airbus A321neo jets, although this month, it announced at the CES trade show that it introduce Bluetooth to more aircraft and cabins starting in 2026.

Meanwhile, American Airlines has been teasing Bluetooth functionality for years but has yet to bring it on board. The airline says passengers can expect Bluetooth onboard its Boeing 787-9 and 777-300 and Airbus A321XLR planes in the “future.”

United is also outpacing its rivals on screen resolution. The new screens it’s installing are all 4K resolution, among the highest definition offered by U.S. airlines. Again, Delta is scrambling to catch up: at CES, it promised 4K screens in the next few years but didn’t commit to a rollout schedule.

Starlink Wi-Fi: Incoming

Lightning-fast Wi-Fi, coming soon to United planes via Starlink, will further transform in-flight entertainment options.

While passengers can hop aboard Wi-Fi using their personal devices, United hopes they’ll still use its seatback screens and aims to create an experience much like travelers’ living rooms.

Photo: Courtesy of United Airlines

Green said United is already exploring how to use Wi-Fi to improve entertainment content. He was coy about specifics but said travelers may soon find live content and real-time updates on their screens.

United announced last year that it would bring Starlink’s ground-breaking high-speed satellite internet to its entire 1,000-aircraft-strong fleet. The full rollout will take years. But the first United plane to be retrofitted for Starlink—an Embraer E175 regional jet—will take to the skies this spring.

Photo: United Airlines, Embraer E175. Courtesy of Denver International Airport.

Starlink, developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, uses small satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) to deliver internet at speeds of up to 200Mbps, many times the glacial speeds passengers find with traditional satellite connections.

Features for aviation enthusiasts

While some of us will eagerly use those lush screens to view new blockbusters and binge-able TV shows, aviation geeks—and regular passengers, too—are more interested in what’s going on within the plane and airfield. United isn’t forgetting them.

It’s trialing a new inflight map: the Control Tower view. This feature gives passengers an air traffic controller’s view of the airfield, including other aircraft, runways, taxiways, and terminal buildings. Click on the surrounding planes and you’ll see their call numbers and operating airlines.

Photo: Boeing 737 MAX 9. Courtesy of United Airlines

United expects the feature will also have appeal beyond aviation enthusiasts. The moving flight map is already the most popular viewable content on United planes. In 2024, travelers spent an average of 60 minutes tracking the journey of their flight in the air, Green said.

“We thought it’d be really cool that customers could see where they are on the airfield. We already have pretty good quality zoom-level maps, like down to kind of street-level view, and we said, well, it’d be great to have that airfield terminal level where you could actually see where you’re at. Cool for aviation geeks, watching the little planes move around, but also I think it’s really helpful for customers,” he told TPG.

Passengers could use the map to keep track of where their plane is in the line for takeoff. For some, a view of the airfield could ease pre-flight jitters.

Photo: United’s 2024 route map. Courtesy of United

The feature has been developed in partnership with FlightPath3D and draws on real-time data from FlightAware. United is the launch customer for the new map and will be the only airline offering it during a one-year exclusivity period.

Duncan Jackson, President of FlightPath3D, said: “The launch of Control Tower is another step in delivering on our mission to guide every passenger through a seamless, transparent travel experience from start to finish.

“The moving map is one of the most popular elements of the IFE experience. Now passengers can tap into this dynamic entertainment application from the moment they take their seats.”

Listen to ATC

United has also reaffirmed its commitment to Channel 9, an audio feed of conversations between pilots and air traffic controllers. Some fans have found the feature disabled on their recent flights and have expressed concerns that United is discontinuing it.

Not the case, Green told TPG. He said that pilots sometimes choose to disable it. “We know it’s a cool feature,” he said. “We have it enabled as much as we can.”

Photo: Courtesy of United

Regular updates keep United’s IFE free of bugs and introduce new features

Travelers should keep an eye on their IFE screens, as United often quietly slips into new features as it makes regular software updates.

What’s Next?

Green said United has made three software updates since it rolled out its new user experience (UX) to seatback screens a year ago. Many of these updates tweak or add new features.

Photo: United Airlines, first A321neo. Courtesy of Airbus

But one coveted feature may not ever be introduced: screen-casting. Business travelers might appreciate being able to connect their laptops and tablets to the seatback screen as they work.

Green says United’s systems already have the capability to do this, but said its corporate partners have pushed back, concerned about their data being broadcast to public screens, visible to snooping travelers in adjacent seats. Better to keep those 4K screens for movies and flight maps, the airline has decided.