The days of fellow passengers listening to their movies, music, reels or books without the benefit of headphones are hopefully over, at least on one airline.
United Airlines already asked passengers to wear headphones, but the company recently updated the contract of carriage, saying, “passengers who fail to use headphones while listening to audio or video content” could be prohibited from boarding or even removed from the aircraft, The Washington Post reported.
“We’ve always encouraged customers to use headphones when listening to audio content — and our WiFi rules already remind customers to use headphones,” United spokesperson Josh Freed told the Post via email. “It seemed like a good time to make that even clearer by adding it to the contract of carriage.”
The contract of carriage was updated on Feb. 27, Fox News reported. It is part of the “refusal of transport” section, which spells out when a passenger may be blocked from a flight.
United is not the only airline where headphones are needed.
Some go as far as listing it in the contract of carriage, others just set the expectations.
Frontier has it as part of the carry-on portion of the contract. While Southwest doesn’t mention headphones specifically, its contract does say that passengers are to listen to crew member instructions, including the use of personal electronic devices.
“Thus, a passenger would be expected to adhere to instructions about headphones,” Southwest spokesperson Chris Perry said in an email to the Post.
Keep in mind, Southwest does not have seatback entertainment systems and does not sell headphones on board a flight, ABC News reported.
Delta, on the other hand, asks passengers, “For the comfort of everyone around you, please use earbuds or headphones with any personal electronic device during your flight,” and passes out free headphones on most flights.
How many people will be denied travel?
Travel expert Scott Keyes told CBS News probably not many.
“This is in line with how the vast majority of travelers comport themselves and would like others to comport themselves,” he told CBS News. “It’s usually only a small number of folks on airplanes who are making noise by not using headphones, so this is a graceful way to handle those folks.”
Forgot your headphones?
So what happens if you don’t have headphones on a United Airlines flight? Do you just have to listen to the hum of the engines?
Not necessarily.
United’s in-flight entertainment information states that you can ask for a complimentary basic wired pair of headphones while onboard, Fox News reported.
Some United aircraft have seat playback systems that will take a plug-in pair of headphones, ABC News reported.
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