Passport: check. Boarding pass: check. Water bottle you'll forget to empty until the security gate and will therefore have to drink in one go? Check. But have you remembered to download your Spotify playlists so you can listen while your phone is in airplane mode? Probably not — I always forget until the flight's boarding too.

Well, Spotify says there's no such thing as too late, because its new partnership ensures you can listen when you're at cruising altitude. This collab is with United, a US-based airline which the music streaming giant worked with before.

Rolling out immediately, but only to certain flights, you'll now be able to access your Spotify account via the plane's in-flight entertainment system. Initially, this'll just apply if the plane has a Starlink connection, but apparently in 2027 more of its fleet will support the function.

This is the second stage of United's Spotify collab. The first part put limited Spotify account libraries onto the airline's in-flight entertainment machines, with 450 hours of podcasts and playlists accessible — but if you share my views on what the streaming site tries to push, you'll agree that it's much better to be able to choose what you listen to.

You won't need to pay for in-flight Wi-Fi access to be able to use the United Spotify terminals. Otherwise, why wouldn't you pay for Wi-Fi and use it on your phone? However Spotify's press release didn't say if it's for all users, or just paid-for Premium accounts.

Instead, you need to log into your flight's United Wi-Fi network, open Spotify on the seat-back screen, and use your phone's camera to scan a QR code to log in.

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