Between Q3 2025 and Q3 2026, in-flight Wi-Fi satisfaction rose at all four of the largest US airlines. United gained 14 points, from -14 NPS to 0, and American gained 13, from -8 to +5. Southwest gained 7, from -13 to -6. Delta moved from +5 to +7, a change inside the margin of error, and still leads. Recon Analytics surveyed 21,262 US adults who took at least one domestic leisure flight in Q3 2025 or Q3 2026. Since Delta picked Amazon Leo over Starlink on March 31, Elon Musk has said the choice will cost it “a lot of customers.”
Delta’s domestic lead has shrunk to the point where it no longer separates Delta from United. A year ago Delta led United by 19 points; in Q3 2026, Delta’s +7 and United’s 0 are statistically tied. Delta got there with older Viasat and Hughes satellites, free for SkyMiles members since February 2023 and now on more than 1,200 aircraft. United has offered free Starlink since May 2025, finished its regional jets by February and passed 400 aircraft in June. Its score moved only in Q3, as installs reached the mainline fleet.
International flying is where Delta’s lead holds. Recon Analytics surveyed 2,823 US adults who took at least one international leisure flight in Q3 2026. Delta’s international flyers rate its Wi-Fi at +17, against +4 at American and +1 at United, gaps outside the margin of error. Southwest’s 113 international respondents are too few to call.
Free Wi-Fi shows up in the gains more clearly than fast Wi-Fi does. American made Wi-Fi free for AAdvantage members in January 2026 on the same Viasat and Intelsat systems it already flew; its first Starlink installs come in 2027. Southwest went free on October 24, 2025 and has Starlink on only a handful of planes.
Wi-Fi remains a sore spot. Over the last twelve months, 11.7% of domestic flyers said the Wi-Fi failed them on their most recent flight, second only to delays (22.8%) and ahead of cancellations (7.1%).
It still doesn’t decide where people fly. Asked to rank what decides a leisure trip over the last twelve months, 29.1% of flyers put the fare first and 14.3% put a nonstop flight first. Wi-Fi comes first for 3.8%, tied for ninth of 13 factors. Better Wi-Fi didn’t raise that weight: 3.8% ranked it first in Q3 2025 and 3.7% in Q3 2026.
Wi-Fi works like plumbing. Nobody picks an airline for it, and everybody notices when it fails. Over the last twelve months, flyers who rated the Wi-Fi a 9 or 10 gave their overall trip +68.5; flyers who rated it 6 or below gave it -18.9. The same split on the flight crew runs from +62.4 to -54.1. Satisfied flyers score everything higher, which accounts for part of both gaps.
Business travelers are the exception, and Delta’s premium revenue depends on them. Over the last twelve months, 32.6% of flyers put Wi-Fi in their top five business-trip selection factors and 6.5% ranked it first, about 1.7 times the leisure rate. Flyers whose last trip was for business rate Wi-Fi at -14, against -8 for leisure flyers, and report problems 17.7% of the time against 10.0%. Flyers who travel domestically only for business, outside this base, rate it lower still.
Delta isn’t losing bookings over Wi-Fi today. Wi-Fi is the first choice of fewer than one leisure flyer in 25. The calendar is less forgiving. As of early October 2026, Amazon Leo has no commercial service, and Delta’s installs start in 2028. United expects nearly 1,000 Starlink aircraft by the end of 2026. That gives United two years to market a faster connection to the business travelers who weight Wi-Fi most and complain about it most. Musk’s prediction only works if Wi-Fi decides bookings. For 96 of every 100 leisure flyers it doesn’t, which leaves Delta’s exposure concentrated in the front of the plane on domestic routes.