Alaska Airlines has announced plans to introduce free Starlink Wi-Fi, which probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise. This is only one of several announcements from the airline today, as the company has also unveiled its new Atmos Rewards program, plus has launched a new premium credit card.
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Alaska’s free Starlink Wi-Fi for Atmos Rewards members
Alaska Airlines has signed an agreement with SpaceX, to introduce Starlink Wi-Fi throughout its fleet, including on all Boeing 787s, Boeing 737s, and Embraer E175s. The expectation is that this will start to be installed as of December 2025, so realistically, it’ll likely be early 2026 before the first plane is in service with Starlink. Then the plan is for this project to be complete by early 2027.
Best of all, Alaska plans to offer this for free to all members of its Atmos Rewards loyalty program (the new branding for Alaska’s loyalty program, which is free to sign-up for), in partnership with T-Mobile. Members will be able to connect on multiple devices, including laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
Starlink is known for its high-speed, low-latency broadband internet, and the service will be offered gate to gate. Starlink Wi-Fi will allow for live streaming, productivity similar to on the ground (with high upload and download speeds), gaming, e-commerce, and more.
Starlink is becoming increasingly popular with airlines. So far we’ve seen carriers like airBaltic, Air France, Air New Zealand, Hawaiian Airlines, Qatar Airways, SAS, United, Virgin Atlantic, and WestJet, all announce plans to install the service. What’s also great about Starlink is that the installation process is pretty quick, once aircraft are certified to have it installed.
This is a positive and sensible development!
I don’t think many people will be surprised by Alaska’s announcement about introducing Starlink Wi-Fi. Keep in mind that Hawaiian Airlines was the first commercial airline to introduce Starlink Wi-Fi, and Hawaiian is of course now part of Alaska Air Group.
Hawaiian already offers Starlink Wi-Fi on its Airbus A330s and Airbus A321neos. So by early 2027, we’ll see Alaska Air Group offer Starlink Wi-Fi fleetwide, except on Boeing 717s, which are exclusively used on inter-island flights. I have to imagine that’s because those planes will likely be replaced sooner rather than later, given that they’re an average of around 24 years old.
For context, currently Alaska offers Intelsat 2Ku on its mainline fleet, so the Starlink Wi-Fi should be a very nice upgrade, in terms of both speeds and value.
United is the only other major US carrier that has committed to Starlink, so Alaska and United will have a nice advantage. Meanwhile Delta offers free Wi-Fi, and American plans to offer free Wi-Fi as of early 2026, and those two airlines primarily use Viasat.
Bottom line
Alaska Airlines plans to introduce free Starlink Wi-Fi, with the rollout expected to happen between very late 2025 and early 2027. This will be offered in partnership with T-Mobile, and will be free for Atmos Rewards members. This is a fantastic development, and shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, given Hawaiian already offering Starlink on a widespread basis.
What do you make of Alaska introducing free Starlink Wi-Fi?
Alaska is going to offer its Titanium aka MVP 100k free upgrades for them and a +1 on longhaul flights like FCO, NRT, etc.
I wonder if this will depress their business class yields.
@ yoloswag420 -- I can't imagine it would. Day of departure upgrades are a massive gamble...
Don't you think simply the fact that the chance exists will decrease the amount of people booking business class outright?
It's not like Alaska is seeing heavy premium loads on their NRT right now, even with their tiny front cabin.
@ yoloswag420 -- You're right that initial load factors on NRT flights seem to be quite low, but I imagine this is all very temporary. I don't think premium cabins will be empty for long, as Alaska will increasingly find better ways to monetize those cabins.
Big picture, I just don't think there are that many passengers who decide between spending $5K on a business class ticket, or hoping for a complimentary upgrade. If you're...
@ yoloswag420 -- You're right that initial load factors on NRT flights seem to be quite low, but I imagine this is all very temporary. I don't think premium cabins will be empty for long, as Alaska will increasingly find better ways to monetize those cabins.
Big picture, I just don't think there are that many passengers who decide between spending $5K on a business class ticket, or hoping for a complimentary upgrade. If you're a business traveler, you'll typically do whatever your travel policy allows. If you're a leisure traveler planning to go to Rome next summer, odds are that you won't make your ticket decision based on the small possibility of a complimentary upgrade.
Do I think this might create demand for last minute economy tickets when premium cabins appear to be empty, and Titanium members decide they want to chance it for an upgrade? Sure. But those people wouldn't have paid for business class in the first place.
To give another example, Delta offers day of departure upgrades on premium transcon flights, and that doesn't seem to be negatively impacting the carrier's yields there.
We'll see how it all plays out. :-)
I suppose, I guess, if it really has no impact, then you would think the legacy carriers would've offered something like this already.
I don't think it's accurate to say people wouldn't have paid for it anyways. If I knew there was a way to consistently snag a business class seat on the cheap, then I have no reason to buy business class ever vs if free upgrades aren't an option, then I certainly have...
I suppose, I guess, if it really has no impact, then you would think the legacy carriers would've offered something like this already.
I don't think it's accurate to say people wouldn't have paid for it anyways. If I knew there was a way to consistently snag a business class seat on the cheap, then I have no reason to buy business class ever vs if free upgrades aren't an option, then I certainly have to consider buying it outright.
I'd also add that intercontinental demand is very different from the high volume premium transcons like NYC-LAX/SFO.
@ yoloswag420 -- "If I knew there was a way to consistently snag a business class seat on the cheap, then I have no reason to buy business class ever vs if free upgrades aren't an option, then I certainly have to consider buying it outright."
I totally agree with that, of course. I think the thing we disagree on is the likelihood of being able to gauge odds of a long haul upgrade, especially...
@ yoloswag420 -- "If I knew there was a way to consistently snag a business class seat on the cheap, then I have no reason to buy business class ever vs if free upgrades aren't an option, then I certainly have to consider buying it outright."
I totally agree with that, of course. I think the thing we disagree on is the likelihood of being able to gauge odds of a long haul upgrade, especially when you typically have to book as a roundtrip to get the best deal.
As I said above, if you're booking a last minute ticket, sure, maybe you can tell. But if you're planning in advance, I think it's hard to say whether or not one of these day of departure upgrades might clear.
I think the thing to remember is that the launch of Alaska's long haul network is kind of a hot mess, given the confusing branding, the separate loyalty programs, etc. Once Alaska branding is used and Atmos Rewards fully goes into effect, I think it's going to be a very different story.
For example, I'd expect Alaska to try and monetize empty business class seats with reasonably priced upgrades leading up to departure. The airline isn't just going to leave revenue on the table.