Please sign in to post.

AirFly bluetooth transmitter

I hate hate hate the tour radios, often called Whispers, and the wired earpiece that comes with it. I do not want the thing dangling from my neck, so would usually place it in an outside pocket of my bag and struggle with the wired earbuds getting tangled.

So this year after reading some reviews I decided to spend a big $35 on a TwelveSouth Airfly bluetooth transmitter and use my own bluetooth earbuds (Anker) and what a difference! I am sure you can use whatever bluetooth transmitter you want, but this worked well for me. Whisper went into my bag with the transmitter, one earbud went into my ear and I was good to go. Sound quality is vastly better and I could adjust volume on my earbuds rather than the tour radio.

Also worked very well for movies on the plane - no wire connecting me to the seat, better sound quality and volume control.

Posted by
1584 posts

Glad to see this good experience. I have been looking for something similar for my upcoming trip to Italy (not RS) which also uses Whispers.

Posted by
6264 posts

I have it and started using it in December when I flew back to Ohio for Christmas. It works great. One of the best purchases I’ve made. I will definitely be using it on this upcoming trip as well. I use it with my AirPods.

Posted by
2267 posts

I love mine! I haven't used it on a group tour trip, but on a couple of one-off walking tours, on planes, and with audio guides (the kind that are a proprietary paddle you have to hold up to your ear.)

I carry it daily when traveling, in my crossbody with my AirPods. (You never know when you might come across one of those audio guides!)

Posted by
178 posts

I just received mine via Amazon 1-day delivery. I was very surprised at how small it was; the on-line pictures made it seem significantly bigger. The smaller size, however, is a boon to us intrepid RS travelers who live and die by his mantra "pack light, pack light, pack light"! Using it with a Whisper device is a brilliant piece of advice.

Posted by
222 posts

I am hoping to use the airily with my bluetooth enabled hearing aids for Whisper as I do now for the airplane entertainment system. Also have used the airily on planes with Bose earbuds. Works great! Tried another brand that did not work but for one flight!

Posted by
105 posts

We used them last year on our Southern England tour, they worked great!! This year we upgraded to the pro-version (we had the older original version) so that the battery will last longer.

Posted by
118 posts

@Lynda - Does the Airfly work with your bluetooth hearing aids? The hearing aids are able to pair with the Airfly successfully? If so, this is great news!

Posted by
2745 posts

Maybe its just me but I found the AirFly a GIANT waste of money. I had to re-pair constantly as it kept losing my ebuds.. Incredibly frustrating and I won't be using it again

Posted by
99 posts

I have the AirFly Pro and I have paired it with. my AirPods Pros (2nd Gen) and they work great. Because I don't use them frequently, I keep the instructions in a snack size bag (the bag they included isn't big enough to hold the instructions) with the AirFly Pro, so if I run into issues I have the instructions handy.

I recently used them on two trips, one to London and one to Frankfurt. Both times I had no issues.

Posted by
178 posts

I have been using the AirFly with my AirPods and the Vox transmitter since our Best of London in 7 Days tour started on Sunday. Works perfectly and is a nice change from wired earbuds.

Posted by
9530 posts

DB - so funny -- I also have to keep the directions with mine (also since I don't use it that often), but I went the opposite way from you : instead of putting the piece and the instructions in a slightly larger bag, I cut down the instructions to where they would fit with the transmitter in that little synthetic sack !

Glad that we both found a way to meet our needs!