United Airlines recently made a change many flyers have been silently depending for years: it’s cracking down on passengers who play audio from personal devices without headphones. The airline updated its “contract of carriage” (the legally binding agreement passenger accept by purchasing a ticket) on February 27, 2026, giving it the right to remove or even permanently ban travelers who “fail to use headphones while listening to audio or video content” on board. The rule sits under the airline’s “Refusal of Transport” section, making it a clear violation and a basis for asking someone to deplane. Formerly, cabin crew would make announcements on flights asking passengers to use headphones, and pass out complimentary headphones, but didn’t have a formalized system for actually enforcing the societal nicety.
United Airlines Bans One of Travel's Most Hated Habits
The change comes at a time when United is embracing other high-tech changes, including installing Starlink Wi-Fi on planes and introducing Bluetooth connectivity across its headrest entertainment units. Both changes will likely lead to an increase in the number of travelers attempting to stream video and audio in-flight. United has also long pushed personal device entertainment, offering a larger library of entertainment options accessible via the United App, rather than in the headrest entertainment units, creating more potential issues if passengers’ headphones or earbuds are out of battery, won’t pair, or get lost.
It’s the first US-based carrier to add this rule to the official contract of carriage, though other airlines unofficially encourage passengers to use headphones. Delta Air Lines has an advisory on its in-flight entertainment pages and app asking passengers to use headphones “for the comfort of everyone around you,” and American has a “quiet cabin” policy that asks passengers to keep the volume to reasonable levels, though it’s more of an unofficial ask than an actual rule.
On social media and in flyer forums, people who listen to audio without headphones or earbuds have a nickname: “speaker scum.” The nickname originated in a United Airlines subReddit page, when a user asked “Do we have a term for our fellow passengers that do not use headphones? This is getting out of hand.” Comments ensued from flyers echoing their frustration about the behavior.
It’s a behavior most people can agree makes flying worse. A 2024 JBL survey on travel habits found that listening to audio without headphones was the second-most complained about airplane annoyance, trailing only the person in front fully reclining their seat. (Six percent, however, said they listen to audio without headphones “all the time,” and see no problem with it.) Another survey from YouGov.com ranked it as the third-most annoying airplane behavior, following letting children play in the aisle (86 percent of people found this annoying), and a tie between drunk passengers and people who leave their seats during turbulence (each reported as annoying by 82 percent of respondents). Watching audio without headphones was reported annoying by 81 percent of passengers. A USA Today travel correspondent even jokingly said the behavior should be “worthy of jail time.”
As of now, United has not commented on how exactly the rule would be enforced, as deplaning passengers at 30,000 feet is generally not an option. Nor have any other airlines indicated whether they plan to change their policies — but if travel surveys are at all accurate, most passengers would be much happier if they did. 