No Headphones? You Might Be Banned

Bravo, United !

I don't think they enforce the rules they have now-United seems to have more problems with unruly passengers than some of the other airlines.

This will probably be driven by complaints of people around the non-headphone people. This gives them a tool if they choose to use it.

And they do say they will offer headphones to people who didn't bring theirs but your device must have a headphone jack or one of the dongles that supply that.

[snip]
United notes that it will offer customers who forget theirs a free pair of wired earbuds. "Don't worry if you forget your headphones for your flight," the airline states on its website. "If they're available, you can request free earbuds." You'd better hope your device still has a headphone jack...

You'd better hope your device still has a headphone jack...

Or just learn to be polite … either bring your own earbuds or turn off the sound.

For years people had to turn off their devices for the duration of the flight. It doesn’t seem like a hardship to ask people to use a headphone when they are sitting inches from a stranger who may not share their taste in music.

We’re on United every three weeks because Alaska has cut back their nonstop flights between SFO and Bend. They do offer free earphones to everyone. They do now scrutinize to make sure you have one carryon and one personal item. They turn people back if you try to board before your group. In close to a year now, we have not seen any unruly passengers having to be dealt with. The worst thing has been the frequency of late arrivals into SFO and even then the crew has been quite good at knowing who has a very short connection time and ensuring that others stay seated in order to get those passengers off the plane first and stating this several times.