Musk took to X to proclaim Delta's CEO "will lose his job over this," escalating a public feud over the best in-flight Internet service. The feud dates to March, when Delta chose to use Amazon's Internet satellite network instead of Musk's Starlink. Amazon had just 300 satellites in space at the time, compared with more than 10,000 for Starlink. In late 2025, a company that measures Internet speeds called Ookla tested in-flight Wi-Fi systems and found just 2.2% of Delta's connections were fast enough to stream high-definition video. United, which is in the middle of switching its planes to Starlink, had a far higher rate of 63.7%, and Starlink wasn't used by any airline with a rate below 50%. The gap in performance is largely due to altitude, Ookla said. Starlink's satellites orbit about 50 times higher than a plane flies, while the older satellite technology that Delta uses is more than 3,000 times higher. Even the slowest 10% of Ookla's tests on Starlink were faster than the average customer on any rival satellite system experienced, the data showed. Part of the reason United was able to switch to the new system so quickly is that the equipment is lightweight (85 pounds, compared with as much as 300 pounds for the old system) and so a plane only needs to be taken out of service for four days, instead of ten, to be equipped. Delta won't start installing the first Amazon systems until 2028, on an initial 500 planes, and it's using an antenna nobody has tested on an airliner. The deal with Amazon is "a much lower price point than what we've ever seen from Starlink," Delta CEO Ed Bastian told Bloomberg. Neither company has disclosed prices. In late September, an X account that covers the airline industry posted comments it said Bastian made at a company meeting. "We do not want to be with Elon Musk. Trust me," it quoted him as saying. The account said it wasn't able to verify the quotes, and Delta hasn't commented on them. First Musk said Bastian would be fired, and then he tweeted that the best way to sandbox an AI is "to put it on a Delta flight", a post that has had 8 million views. Then on Thursday, United offered Delta's highest-tier customers the chance to get matching status at United, with the tagline "Don't keep buffering." Mike Lee, a senator from Utah who says he is a loyal Delta customer, also got in on the act, saying the airline's Wi-Fi "works sporadically at best and often not at all." The status offer at United is good until January 2028, the year Delta expects its first Amazon planes to start flying. Images (Wikimedia Commons; cropped and graded): Delta jets — 4300streetcar, CC BY 4.0; Starlink render — Wikideas1, CC BY 4.0; satcom radome — Matti Blume, CC BY-SA 4.0.