{"id":153575,"date":"2026-03-05T07:25:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T07:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/153575\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T07:25:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T07:25:18","slug":"united-airlines-updates-contract-of-carriage-rules-to-force-flyers-to-use-headphone-when-using-devices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/153575\/","title":{"rendered":"United Airlines updates contract of carriage rules to force flyers to use headphone when using devices"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This annoying travel habit won\u2019t fly with United Airlines.<\/p>\n<p>The major airline recently made clear that passengers who don\u2019t use headphones while listening to electronic devices could get tossed off a flight \u2013 or even banned from traveling with the company.<\/p>\n<p>The new rule was quietly added to United\u2019s contract of carriage terms under its \u201crefusal to transport\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.united.com\/en\/us\/fly\/contract-of-carriage.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">section<\/a> late last month \u2014 a change first reported on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/amp\/news\/united-airlines-remove-passengers-who-dont-wear-headphones\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">by CBS News.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cPassengers who fail to use headphones while listening to audio or video content,\u201d is one of the infractions that can get a flyer thrown off a flight, along with a litany of other long-established rules like assaulting staff or being barefoot, according to the contract.<\/p>\n<p>United confirmed the Feb. 27 change in an email to The Post, noting the company\u2019s effort to expand Starlink Wi-Fi access to its planes helped lead to the new rule.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.50146628;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38677747\" width=\"886\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/a321-airplane-approaches-los-angeles-122774185.jpg\" alt=\"United made the change in its contract of carriage. \" class=\"wp-image-38677747\"  \/>United made the change in its contract of carriage.  Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve always encouraged customers to use headphones when listening to audio content \u2014 and our Wi-Fi rules already remind customers to use headphones,\u201d a United spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the expansion of Starlink, it seemed like\u00a0a good time\u00a0to make that even clearer by adding it to the contract of carriage,\u201d the rep added.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.50146628;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38677746\" width=\"886\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/using-smart-phone-flight-listening-122774544.jpg\" alt=\"Flyers who don't use headphones could get the boot. \" class=\"wp-image-38677746\"  \/>Flyers who don\u2019t use headphones could get the boot.  Chalabala \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n<p>If travelers forget to pack headphones, the airline\u2019s site states that crew members will provide free earbuds upon request.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is in line with how the vast majority of travelers comport themselves and would like others to comport themselves,\u201d travel expert Scott Keyes told CBS News. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This annoying travel habit won\u2019t fly with United Airlines. The major airline recently made clear that passengers who&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3346,10997,63763,9,11,10,15967,58],"class_list":["post-153575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-air-travel","tag-airlines","tag-headphones","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-united-airlines","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}