The Android Travel Trick That Can Get Wi-Fi To All Of Your Other Devices While Flying

As a frequent traveler, I'm always looking for a way to make my ventures more convenient and productive. I recently learned a trick that allows me to connect to airplane (or even cruise ship) Wi-Fi and share it out to a number of different devices. Often, when you connect to Wi-Fi on a passenger vehicle, it comes with two restrictions. First, you have to pay for it, and second, when you do, it's limited to just one device.

I'm a user of both the iPhone 16 and various Android devices (often the OnePlus Open), and before I learned this trick, I usually connected with my iPhone. The iPhone is what I use to do most of my gaming and movie watching when I'm strapped to a seat in a metal tube at 35,000 feet. Well, it turns out I was shortchanging myself all along.

If you connect to Wi-Fi with an Android phone, you can then turn on the phone's Wi-Fi hotspot feature and just like that, you're broadcasting your own Wi-Fi signal, piggybacking off the plane's Wi-Fi. It's similar to using your Android phone as a Wi-Fi repeater, but instead of filling a dead spot in your home, you're connecting multiple devices to a single connection.

The trick here is that this only works on Android phones, and the reason is actually pretty simple. You can use your iPhone as a Wi-Fi hotspot, and in fact, it's often easier to do so on an iPhone as long as you are sharing to other Apple devices, and in many cases, it's automatic. But, to do so, your iPhone turns off Wi-Fi in order to broadcast to other devices. Your Android phone has no such restriction.

There are some limitations to this. Of course, airplane Wi-Fi can be spotty (or it simply might just not work), and obviously, if that's the case, then all you're doing is sharing a bad signal. Another issue is that, at least on my preferred airline (United), the terms of service do not allow you to share a Wi-Fi signal with other people, but it doesn't expressly forbid you from sharing to other devices. Other airlines, like American Airlines, explicitly forbid tethering. Delta also prohibits the practice with another person, but not among multiple devices. Needless to say, it's worth reading the terms of service before doing this, and of course, you'll be doing so at your own risk.

By doing this, you can expand your internet connection to your other phones, tablets, your laptop, and more. Plus, if you're a T-Mobile subscriber like me, there's a chance your plan includes at least some airplane Wi-Fi connectivity for free.