Delete the screen and give me Starlink: but what a sight it is to fly like this on Air France's A350

Yesterday's day was quite traumatic. At 2 am Tahitian local time, I found out that Frenchbee had canceled my flight. for San Francisco and had re-routed me 24 hours later on the same connection.

Sure, there were other options: for example, Air France to Los Angeles or Air Tahiti Nui, also to the City of Angels. But for the French low-cost airline-as for all low-cost airlines in general-there is no question of reprotecting to traditional airlines.

How we ended up on flight AF29

And so, in about 45 minutes I found myself an alternative flight back to Italy. First Air France to Los Angeles, then Delta to San Francisco and from there resume the original route: Air France to Paris and finally Milan.

In the end we are (re)ended up on the same flight that had taken us to Polynesia.: same aircraft model (almost the same crew) and same route, but in the opposite direction. The only difference was the cabin. I had taken the last three available seats and, unbelievably, Air France sold me three last-minute tickets with points at a bargain price.

The real difference, however, Marika noticed. While I was busy talking to myself on camera-without paying much attention to small details-she alerted me to Starlink's presence aboard this plane.

Starlink on board Air France

Air France announced the adoption of Starlink last September, and I honestly didn't expect to find it already installed on an A350. I imagined it first on the planes being restyled and then, slowly, on the rest of the fleet. But instead: surprise.

Air France is not the first airline to adopt SpaceX's technology, but this was my first time on a long haul, After testing it aboard airBaltic. AND WOW.

Looking closely at the camera images from the tail rudder, one can clearly see the difference between the two antennas: the standard one is a small "hump," while Starlink's is completely flat.

How to find out if your flight has Starlink

If you have the ability to control the antenna, you're on your way; otherwise, just look at the name of the Wi-Fi network: AirFrance WIFI indicates Starlink, while AirFrance CONNECT is the traditional system.

The first, seemingly strange thing is that on planes without Starlink, connectivity is still charged-and definitely expensive-while with the new system everything is free. All you need is to be enrolled in the Air France KLM loyalty program.

Forget messaging, forget bandwidth, traffic or time limits. You connect and surf without limits, with as many devices as you want.

Starlink performance on board Air France

This was the classic situation where I regretted being in economy and therefore not having room to work on the PC. However, I tested the connection with both phone and tablet and literally "bleached out."

I was able to download the file of one of the upcoming videos on our channel in less than 60 seconds. Throughout the flight the connection remained constant, despite the fact that we were in one of the least populated areas on the planet: the nowhere between the Polynesian archipelago and the U.S. East Coast.

Starlink in 2026 will be on (almost) every company

Over the past few months, we have chronicled all the announcements from the various companies about the adoption of Elon Musk's technology, and as I experience it on board, I say that in the future they might even remove the screen and just leave me with a stand where I can dock my iPad, saving space on the coffee table.

Sure, I still want to be able to connect to the in-flight portal to access cameras and flight map, but otherwise I prefer my device, connected to everything I use every day-from Sky to Netflix, Paramount to all my subscriptions, and, if need be, thanks to NordVPN be "at home" even at 35,000 feet altitude on the other side of the world.

• starlink