United Airlines has a new rule on the books that has some travelers cheering: Listening to audio without headphones can now get passengers removed from a plane.
The airline already had a pro-headphone policy in place, but last week it updated its contract of carriage— the rules a passenger agrees to in order to fly — to specify that “passengers who fail to use headphones while listening to audio or video content” could be removed from a plane or not allowed to board.
“We’ve always encouraged customers to use headphones when listening to audio content — and our Wi-Fi rules already remind customers to use headphones,” United spokesman Josh Freed said in an email, adding that the carrier is expanding its high-speed Starlink connectivity. “It seemed like a good time to make that even clearer by adding it to the contract of carriage.”
If you watch a movie on your phone on a plane without headphones in you should be given a life sentence in a maximum security prison
— Josh Espo (@jespo16) February 22, 2026
Other airlines have their own policies encouraging or requiring headphones, though most do not come with the threat of enforcement.
Frontier Airlines includes the requirement in the carry-on baggage section of its contract, though it’s not clear what the penalty would be for ignoring the rule. Frontier did not respond to questions about enforcement. The airline says that portable electronic devices that make sounds “may be used only with headphones and provided the sound, even via the headphones, cannot be heard by others.”
On the entertainment section of its website, Delta Air Lines implores: “For the comfort of everyone around you, please use earbuds or headphones with any personal electronic device during your flight.”
Flight attendants also pass out free headphones to customers on most flights, the airline said.
“Customers are welcome to listen to audio or watch video on board, and we expect them to follow standard courtesy and flight crew instructions,” Delta spokeswoman Samantha Moore Facteau said in an email.
Southwest Airlines doesn’t mention headphones specifically in its contract, but notes on its website that they are required when passengers listen to audio.
“Our contract does include passengers not adhering to crew member instructions, including those about use of personal electronic devices,” spokesman Chris Perry said in an email. “Thus, a passenger would be expected to adhere to instructions about headphones.”
In what alternate universe did we start listening to music without headphones on a plane? I’m sure you don’t wanna hear my gangster rap and one direction just like I don’t want to hear your Polynesian yodeling.
— 𝐿𝑒𝒶𝒽
×͜× ››››› (@leeeahhhhh) January 7, 2026
In 2023, an American Airlines pilot delivered a lecture from the front of the plane that went viral on social media, urging passengers to show respect for each other.
“The social experiment on listening to videos on speaker mode and talking on a cellphone on speaker mode, that is over — over and done in this country,” he said. “Nobody wants to hear your video. … Use your AirPods, use your headphones, whatever it is. That’s your business.”
Travel blogger Ben Schlappig, founder of One Mile at a Time, welcomed the news that United was treating the noise issue more seriously. The Miami resident said fellow travelers in his area are terrible sound scofflaws.
“It drives me absolutely bonkers,” he said. “Of all the things in the airline industry, this is probably what I’m most passionate about, which is quite sad. I just find myself in disbelief at the lack of respect they have for others that they’re just willing to blast whatever they’re listening to.”
Schlappig wondered how United would enforce the rule, but said just having it in place is a good move.
“The spirit of this is fantastic,” he said.
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