Partial free internet on United + free services = web browsing

Zooter

Level 2 Member
Premium Supporter
On a recent United flight, I noticed that after connecting to the UnitedWifi hotspot I was able to send and receive iMessages on my iPhone/Mac (but not SMS) and Gmail.

According to this FlyerTalk thread, this has been happening for a while.
Code:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/united-airlines-mileageplus/1820367-occasional-inflight-imessages-revieved-but-didn-t-pay-access.html
Google services in general seemed to work, including news.google.com, although I'd hit a dead end with any articles I clicked on.

Here's a way to surf articles on the web using the Gmail loophole. There are several free services where you can email a URL to a special address and receive the webpage back as an email.
  • drops@ukeeper.com - this email address will take a link and return a clean, optimized version of the first article it detects as an email, like Readability
  • drops.full@ukeeper.com - this will take a link and return the full webpage by email instead of just the first article
  • webconvert@pdfconvert.me - this email address will take the first URL in the body of your email and return the linked webpage as a PDF
Read more about these services here and additional options you can specify:
http://www.ukeeper.com - note that they ask that you register for free if you plan to use it a good amount
https://pdfconvert.me
 
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