Wi-Fi is an increasingly indispensable ingredient for a productive inflight experience. And while Delta already offers free internet on many of its planes, United and American Airlines still charge—unless, that is, you’re a T-Mobile customer and if you’re on your cell phone.
While this is certainly better than nothing, getting work done on a phone is challenging. Fortunately, there’s a small workaround that will allow you to get free Wi-Fi on your laptop or any other non-mobile device (assuming you have a T-Mobile phone number).
Five easy steps
This method is pretty straightforward. Basically, because free Wi-Fi is only provided to passengers’ mobile phones, you need to make the Wi-Fi login page think that you’re logging in from a phone. To do this, follow these steps:
1. Open up a new tab in Chrome
2. Right-click anywhere on the page and select “Inspect”
3. In the developer console that opens on the side of the browser window, click on the icon that looks like a laptop and phone
4. Once you’ve done this, your browser will now look like a mobile browser. Type in unitedwifi.com or aainflight.com (depending on whether you’re flying United or American) in the search bar at the top of the browser window.
5. You should now see a mobile webpage with the option to connect to free Wi-Fi for T-Mobile customers. Click on it and follow the standard steps required to log on. The screenshot below shows what you’ll see if you’re flying United, but this method also works for American Airlines.
After you’ve done all this, your device should be connected to Wi-Fi. You can now close the mobile-view browser window and use your laptop as usual. Happy surfing!
1 comment
brilliant!!