Elon Musk is publicly urging travellers to ditch Delta after a report that the airline's CEO, Ed Bastian, told staff he didn't want to work with Musk. That claim came from aviation insider JonNYC, who himself couldn't verify the exact quotes — a caveat that has mostly evaporated as the story spread. Musk has since predicted Bastian "will lose his job over this", while senator Mike Lee has chimed in calling Delta's Wi-Fi "abysmal". Meanwhile, X (the platform Musk owns) is surfacing a trending topic about Delta flyers switching airlines. Convenient, given Musk also sells the product at the centre of the row.

Delta's side of the story is that its deal with Amazon — for the Leo satellite service — involves more than just connectivity, and installations are set to begin on an initial 500 aircraft from 2028. In the meantime, Delta already offers free, fast Wi-Fi for SkyMiles members on nearly 1,300 aircraft, though the rollout is patchy on transpacific routes.

Delta's rivals have pounced. American has announced Starlink with installations starting next year and is dangling status matches to tempted Delta elites. United has gone further with its "Switch To Better Wi-Fi" campaign, giving eligible Delta and American elites a spending-based path to status through January 2028 — and it already has Starlink on hundreds of planes, though many aircraft still use older systems. Musk has cheerfully amplified both carriers, posting that they "have Starlink" — which isn't quite true for American yet.

So what does this mean if you're actually booking a flight? The online noise overstates the reality onboard. Claims that Delta passengers have "no chance" of internet access don't match most recent domestic experiences, including this site's source, whose Delta connections have generally worked well. Every airline has dead zones and bad days — Alaska, JetBlue, Southwest, United and American included. Starlink genuinely is excellent, and if you frequently work in the air, flight-by-flight equipment checks are worth doing before you book regardless of carrier. But an army of angry tweets isn't booking data, and Delta's existing free Wi-Fi is far from the internet desert the campaign suggests.

There's also a bigger question lurking here: when the man selling Starlink owns the platform where the boycott conversation unfolds, and its algorithm keeps pushing the same argument to your feed, apparent consensus may just be repetition. Frequent-flyer status matches from United and American are real, tangible offers worth weighing if you're unhappy with Delta's connectivity. Just base the decision on your own flights, not your timeline.

The genuine upside for travellers? Airlines are now competing hard on in-flight internet, and that race should benefit everyone. If Bastian really rejected a better product out of personal dislike, Delta shareholders should be worried. But watching a supplier torch an airline on his own social network also makes it easier to see why a company might think twice about a long-term contract with him.

Story via Live and Let's Fly.