Heading home for the holidays or making a much-needed escape? Not all in-flight services provide in-flight entertainment—which can mean the difference between sitting in your seat anxious and bored, for hours, or feeling well-rested and energized after catching your new favorite movie.
As TV and movie lovers, we ranked US-based airlines on their in-flight amenities like Wi-Fi, entertainment consoles with movies, and more. For details about the rankings and our sources, check out our full methodology.
For the best in-flight entertainment, JetBlue checks nearly all of our boxes, and Delta isn’t far behind. Fortunately, most airlines provide enough amenities to keep you distracted—with three major exceptions.
The best in-flight entertainment
| Rank | Airline | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | JetBlue | 80 |
| 2 | Delta Air Lines | 79 |
| 3 | United Airlines | 66 |
| 4 | American Airlines | 65 |
| 5 | Alaska Airlines | 60 |
| 6 | Southwest Airlines | 47 |
| 7 | Hawaiian Airlines | 40 |
| 8 | Allegiant Air | 0 |
| 8 | Frontier Airlines | 0 |
| 8 | Spirit Airlines | 0 |
Allegiant Air, Frontier Airlines, and Spirit Airlines may charge cheaper fares to get you to your destination, but if you want to stay entertained, make sure to download any music, movies, or games to play offline—or bring a book! These airlines don’t provide in-flight entertainment like the others.
What can you expect from in-flight entertainment?
- Most major airlines provide Wi-Fi, but most cost just under $20 per flight. (Southwest Airlines is cheaper than most at $8. Only JetBlue includes free Wi-Fi.)
- These days, you can access libraries of in-flight entertainment through your device on most flights (but you’ll need Wi-Fi, and likely the airline’s app).
- On most airlines, entertainment consoles come with at least 10 movies.
- Half of the major airlines include music, but only four airlines have games.
- Only Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines offer free messaging.
| Airline | Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi cost – Whole flight | Entertainment console | Entertainment provided by airline on own device | # of movies | Free messaging | Power/USB outlets | Music | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JetBlue | Yes | $0 | Yes | Yes | 6* | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Delta Air Lines | Yes | $16 | Yes | Yes | 300 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| United Airlines | Yes | $18 | Yes | Yes | 10 | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| American Airlines | Yes | $19 | Yes | Yes | 15 | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Alaska Airlines | Yes | $19 | No | Yes | 500 | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Southwest Airlines | Yes | $8 | No | Yes | 15 | Yes | No | No | No |
| Hawaiian Airlines | No | N/A | Yes | Yes | 12 | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Allegiant Air | No | N/A | No | No | 0 | No | No | No | No |
| Frontier Airlines | No | N/A | No | No | 0 | No | No | No | No |
| Spirit Airlines | No | N/A | No | No | 0 | No | No | No | No |
*JetBlue also has Amazon Prime Video access to 21,000 movies
The best airlines for in-flight entertainment ranked
#1 — JetBlue
JetBlue offers free Wi-Fi, entertainment consoles, entertainment for your personal device, six movies (and access to an in-flight Amazon Video app with over 21,000 titles), power and USB outlets, and music. You won’t have free messaging, but you can find plenty of ways to stay connected to your contacts with free Wi-Fi.
JetBlue doesn’t offer any games, but you’ll get cozy seats and plenty of legroom, snooze kits with eye masks, brand-name food and drink options, earplugs, and plenty of live DIRECTV channels to surf too.
#2 — Delta Air Lines
The only downside to Delta’s in-flight entertainment is that Wi-Fi costs $16—but even without internet access, you’ll have access to over 300 movie titles, free messaging (no Wi-Fi purchase required), music, games, and power/USB outlets.
Delta also includes 12 live TV channels (including major news networks, ESPN, and TBS) and select series from HBO, Hulu, Paramount + with Showtime, and more.
#3 — United Airlines
United Airlines covers most of your basic entertainment needs along with DIRECTV channels and $18 Wi-Fi access, but it doesn’t include free messaging like Delta does. United has also joined the trend of offering more personal device entertainment with United Private Screening.
#4 — American Airlines
American Airlines has an entertainment console with around 15 movies in rotation, music, power/USB outlets, live sports, news, and games. You can also access entertainment on your device, but Wi-Fi costs $19 per flight. Plus, domestic flights offer free AppleTV+ with your purchase of Wi-Fi.
#5 — Alaska Airlines
Alaska Airlines boasts the most in-flight movies (excluding JetBlue’s Amazon Video access) out of any airline. However, Alaska doesn’t provide an entertainment console, so you’ll have to watch those movies from your device (which doesn’t require Wi-Fi because the content is hosted on board the plane’s servers).
Alaska Airline’s free messaging doesn’t require a Wi-Fi purchase either, but for other stuff like social media scrolling or article browsing, the $19 Wi-Fi access fee is a bit steep.
Final take
It’s never a bad idea to bring a book or something else to do on your journeys, but having access to TV, movies, music, and games makes a big difference if you forget, or if you just want to zone out while you’re flyin’ high. With three exceptions (Allegiant, Frontier, and Spirit), most airlines provide plenty of in-flight entertainment.
Methodology
We used in-flight entertainment information from each of the largest airlines’ websites to rank the ones with the best in-flight entertainment.
To rank each airline, we weighed the following factors:
- Wi-Fi availability: 20%
- Wi-Fi cost: 20%
- Entertainment console: 15%
- Personal device in-flight entertainment: 10%
- Number of free movies offered: 10%
- Power and USB outlets: 10%
- Music and games availability: 10%
Each metric was normalized on a 0–1 scale with 1 corresponding to the measurement that would most positively affect the final score. These adjusted measurements were then added together with the weights mentioned above to get a score out of 100.
Sources (in alphabetical order)
- Alaska Air, “Inflight Wi-Fi.” Accessed October 21, 2021.
- Allegiant, “Frequently Asked Questions.” Accessed October 21, 2021.
- American Airlines, “Inflight entertainment − Travel information − American Airlines.” Accessed October 21, 2021.
- American Airlines, “American Airlines Gets Ready for Football with Live Action in Flight and More.” Accessed October 21, 2021.
- Delta, “Delta Studio® Inflight Entertainment.” Accessed October 21, 2021.
- Delta, “Onboard Entertainment.” Accessed October 21, 2021.
- Delta, “High-Speed Wi-Fi, Personalized Seatback Entertainment: Delta to Bring New Era of Onboard Experience to Customers.” Accessed October 21, 2021.
- Delta, “Onboard Experience Fact Sheet.” Accessed October 21, 2021.
- Frontier, “In-Flight Entertainment.” Accessed October 21, 2021.
- Hawaiian, “In-Flight Entertainment.” Accessed October 21, 2021.
- Hawaiian, “Is There Wi-Fi Onboard?.” Accessed October 21, 2021.
- JetBlue, “Fly-Fi: Fast, Free Wi-Fi.” Accessed October 21, 2021.
- JetBlue, “Inflight Experience.” Accessed October 21, 2021.
- JetBlue, “Meet the A321 Classic.” Accessed October 21, 2021.
- JetBlue, “DIRECTV.” Accessed October 21, 2021.
- Southwest, “Inflight Entertainment & Drink Menus.” Accessed October 21, 2021.
- Spirit, “Spirit Airlines Review – Seats, Amenities, Service, Fees [2021].” Accessed October 21, 2021.
- Spirit, “Wi-Fi · Spirit Support.” Accessed October 21, 2021.
- United, “United Private Screening.” Accessed October 21, 2021.
- United.” Inflight Entertainment.” Accessed October 21, 2021.
- United, “Inflight Power.” Accessed October 21, 2021.
- United, “The Comprehensive Guide to United Inflight Wi-Fi.” Accessed October 21, 2021.
