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Posted by edward 1 hour ago

Passengers who refuse to use headphones can now be kicked off United flights(www.cnn.com)
157 points | 151 comments
pjmlp 1 hour ago|
Is this really a thing?!? Blasting the others with unwanted noise.

I never been in a flight, or train across Europe where passengers showed just lack of respect for the others.

The only ones pumping anything loud, on trains or busses, usually get quickly pointed down by other passengers, personal or security.

Ah, and then there are the rebellious kids or gangs, as the other exception, which usually don't take flights anyway.

NikolaNovak 1 hour ago||
I am astonished how many people now use speakerphone as their default interaction. On subway, go train, in grocery stores, on the streets, sometimes even in the office, they blast their conversations with zero care.

And so yes, I've definitely seen and experienced people watching inane tiktoks on speaker in subway or bus or airplane. It's the epitome of complete lack of empathy or self awareness to me, but I guess that's the way culture is going.

lostlogin 1 hour ago||
Phone makers deleted the speaker is the ‘courage’ I want.
fhdkweig 28 minutes ago|||
There are times you need speaker-phone mode. My parents almost always turn on speaker-phone when they call me because they both want to be part of the conversation. I don't think they will ever take a plane or a bus trip in their lives so their speaker-phone isn't going to hurt anyone.
echelon 2 minutes ago|||
I need speakerphone when I'm home alone and attempting to be on a phone call while doing other things. Some of those calls are even about instructing me to look for something, so it necessitates me to be moving about. Speakerphone is an incredibly useful utility.

Don't take functionality away because of a few bad actors. That'd be like getting rid of drones because a few people are assholes.

Put rules in place to correct the bad behavior. Kicking them off planes seems fair.

mikkupikku 1 hour ago|||
In America, a small number of people derive pleasure from being disruptive to everybody, and blasting music on public transit with captive audiences is a very "traditional" way of fucking with people and expressing your broad contempt for their society. I'd estimate that maybe one in five times you get on a city bus in America, you'll encounter somebody like this.

Very rarely does anybody call them out or otherwise try to reign it in, because you're as likely as not to be physically attacked and in America, the odds of bystanders coming to your rescue are... Not zero, but not great.

andy99 1 hour ago|||
Pretty sure on planes this is more ignorance than malice. It’s self absorbed people that are too selfish to consider someone else might not want to hear what they’re watching, rather than some deliberate anti society thing.

Regardless, no punishment is too harsh, this should be considered the equivalent of lighting up a cigarette on a plane.

sowbug 55 minutes ago|||
Another angle is kids who have been given a tablet as a pacifier. Their parents are often on autopilot, having checked out months or years earlier.

On topic (and discussed already on HN): https://github.com/Pankajtanwarbanna/stfu

zeroonetwothree 8 minutes ago|||
Tell me you don’t have kids without telling me you don’t have kids
pstuart 40 minutes ago||||
I'm not a fan of the tablet as a pacifier approach but it's not my business. What is my business is when the parents do so without providing a way for the child to indulge without annoying everybody else. I consider that to be absolutely unacceptable in that if they can afford a tablet they can afford cheap headphones.
mothballed 24 minutes ago|||
When young children are on airplanes you cheat in whatever way you can.
jghn 3 minutes ago||
Perhaps people can cheat while still giving them headphones or turning devices on silent mode?
e40 1 hour ago|||
The idea someone doesn’t know they bothering everyone around them is absurd. It is 100% malice.
Sharlin 12 minutes ago|||
Hanlon's razor applies. Yes, some people have a bad case of the main character syndrome simply because nobody has ever called them out on it.
mothballed 7 minutes ago||
Usually they have been called out on it a time or two. They are often signaling that if you want to stop them, you'll have to use violence, and look -- no one or almost no one is willing to do that.

There are a couple of us who have actually seen someone call them out that are warning folks here what commonly happens. I saw someone get attacked with a knife, another commenter here had a gun pulled on him when they asked them to stop. It isn't about the loud music itself, it's that they're openly saying they are king shit, that no one is willing to challenge them, and broadcasting their eagerness to deliver violence upon anyone that might.

The other side of this is that they often do it on places you can't easily escape, like a train car with stops only every 5 minutes. This gives them a very long time to go to town on anyone that might challenges them. Something I've seen with my own eyes when they were asked to tone down the music.

andy99 58 minutes ago||||
I don’t know if anyone remembers the movie Inside Man where at the beginning they are waiting in line at the bank and the woman is having a loud conversation on her phone and the guard comes and tells here to keep it down. It’s this kind of person that I see not using speakers (when the movie was made I don’t think they contemplated humanity could sink that low), at best it’s entitlement, but I still think in most cases it boils down to not thinking about others vs actively trying to annoy them.
y1n0 58 minutes ago||||
I’m sure it is, much of the time. But I also believe many people are just completely self absorbed and devoid of empathy.
plagiarist 35 minutes ago||
I am self-absorbed and devoid of empathy but it is still easy to logically deduce that other people don't want to hear my games, videos, or phone calls.
Fezzik 45 minutes ago||||
A lot of people don’t get a lot of things; you know the adage about stupidity being a more likely cause than malice. Just last week I had to explain to a grown adult why spitting on the sauna floor was disgusting and rude to the other gym members. He was shocked.
charcircuit 27 minutes ago||||
I experienced this in real life and this creature was unable to understand the bus driver telling her to stop. It's like they didn't understand English nor social signals. To me it seemed to stem from a lack of intelligence than from intentionally being malicious.
dymk 51 minutes ago||||
It's apathy
pstuart 39 minutes ago|||
Sorry to disagree -- stupidity and self-centeredness have a plan in that too.
hallole 1 hour ago||||
I don't think I'd have the wherewithal to jump in and do something if I were a bystander. I'm not the sort to throw hands, I don't carry, and these disruptive types are already a bit feral.

I'm not sure it's contempt they're expressing, or if they're expressing anything at all. There really are people who enjoy and defend it, too; "it's just a guy playing music, mind your own business." Truly alien.

AnimalMuppet 1 hour ago|||
My business includes my ears. If you don't want me in your business, keep your business to your ears.
standardUser 54 minutes ago|||
I've found that looking the person in the eye and giving a quick "hey, forget your headphones?" sometimes does the trick, and has yet to start a fight. Everyone has to act in ways they are comfortable with - but mass inaction is what creates space for this shitty behavior in the first place.
dymk 50 minutes ago||
I did this on a bus and had a gun pulled on me, so your mileage may vary
mothballed 31 minutes ago||
Yes exactly. If they are blasting ethnic music while in an ethnic hood it is usually because they are repping their hood, and sometimes in a way to intentionally bait someone to say something. If you ask them to stop they will pretend it is a challenge on their hood/race (no matter that they will play it so loud everyone's ears are splitting and all they want is not to get hearing damage). I watched a guy pull out a knife and start slashing as soon as he was asked to stop.

If you ask such person to stop it is implied they expect you to back that up with violence and you've already consented to a battle.

wanderingstan 56 minutes ago||||
My go-to technique has been to offer the offender a pair of headphones, saying something to insinuate that they must forgotten theirs or be too poor to afford them. Most of the time they say “oh I have headphones!” and then realize that they’ve outed themselves. (I stockpile the free headphones from gyms or airplanes, or get the $2 ones from AliExpress)
oidar 22 minutes ago||
Bluetooth headphones too?

This is actually a really good response though. Because the act of having a device blaring demonstrates contempt for everyone one around them. It's hard to act in a hateful way to someone who just offered you something for free.

CalRobert 1 hour ago||||
Happens elsewhere too. Can be an issue in Dutch trains
LaurensBER 1 hour ago||||
20%? That's a bit insane. This does happen in Europe but is heavily looked down up on and usually quickly corrected.

On the other hand I did get a chewing out from an older guy for having a conversation with friends on a train once, so some people take it perhaps a bit too serious.

keiferski 1 hour ago||
It’s very much a thing on US public transit, with the added negative bonus that no one ever confronts the person doing it, because chances are they’re either crazy, armed, or both.
baal80spam 23 minutes ago||||
I can guarantee you that's not only America's problem.
striking 1 hour ago||||
Sure, but also you might be on a city bus for... half an hour? It's not pleasant to have someone blast noise but it's nothing like a multi-hour flight. Why bother?
johnfn 54 minutes ago||||
I mean, you are painting it as some moralistic judgement, but if you’re asking me for on one hand listening to some annoying music, and on the other hand having some chance (however slight) of bodily injury, knife wound, or whatever… I know which one I am going to choose.
mothballed 39 minutes ago||||
On something like public transit it's often a way of repping your ethnicity/hood. I've been caught in the middle of a knife fight on a California public train car because a guy was blasting Hispanic music intentionally as loud as he could while staring everyone down. Extremely painful (as in ear damaging loud) for everyone, but I didn't say anything because I knew exactly what bait he was laying.

The train car entered a black neighborhood, then a black guy informed him it was his hood and he better knock that shit off. Latino guy immediately pulled out a knife and started swinging.

kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 51 minutes ago||||
> and in America, the odds of bystanders coming to your rescue are... Not zero, but not great

Yes, because there's been a recent push to more heavily punish good Samaritans than perpetrators. When good men get metaphorically crucified for helping, they stop helping.

If that seems like a common sense outcome of such policies, you're right. But as we've seen time and again, common sense is not a flower that grows in everyone's garden.

JumpCrisscross 1 hour ago||||
I’ve absolutely seen this nonsense in the UK.
mikkupikku 1 hour ago|||
Doesn't surprise me, but I'm only speaking from my experience in America.
gib444 1 hour ago|||
Yup. Eg guys getting on Thameslink services in south London, walking right up to the area behind the driver's cab and and start creating a disturbance. Driver stops the train and has a go at them if he's feeling in the mood...
slg 1 hour ago|||
>is a very "traditional" way of fucking with people and expressing your broad contempt for their society.

Motivated in large part as a response to society saying fuck them. I'm not defending assholes being assholes, but I think what we have been seeing in the US over the last 5 or 10 years is classic collapse of the social contract stuff. The less a society cares about its people the less its people will care about the rest of society.

mikkupikku 1 hour ago|||
I get what you're saying, but blasting music on buses has been a thing since boom-boxes were invented, it's nothing new. I am also not inclined to blame systems instead of individuals because most people with the same background of injustice will choose to respond to that injustice by being better than it. It's only a very small number of people being disruptive like this, while the number of people with fair and understandable grievances against society is massive.
3eb7988a1663 1 hour ago|||
It was referenced in the 1986 Star Trek movie -Spock incapacitates a guy after he refuses to turn down his stereo.
slg 1 hour ago|||
>I get what you're saying, but blasting music on buses has been a thing since boom-boxes were invented, it's nothing new.

Yes, because people have always felt like outsiders in relation to society. My point was that this sort of public misbehaving is getting worse because social cohesion is getting even worse. Not everyone with grievances against society will respond this way, but as more people have grievances against society, more people will respond in a manner like this.

3842056935870 28 minutes ago|||
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balderdash 49 minutes ago|||
It is - there are three groups of people that do this generally the completely self absorbed, people from places where it’s culturally acceptable, and people that like the feeling of empowerment that comes from a inconveniencing others (the same people that will walk out into traffic with no light / crosswalk)
callamdelaney 46 minutes ago||
How is walking over a road without a light inconveniencing anyone? I’ll cross the road when it’s clear. I don’t blast music in public places though.
JumpCrisscross 43 minutes ago|||
> How is walking over a road without a light inconveniencing anyone?

They said “walk out into traffic.” That’s rude. You should wait for a signal or a break in the flow so nobody has to brake for you.

lesuorac 38 minutes ago|||
Getting pedantic now but depending on the circumstances the traffic is supposed to have stopped for you.

Assuming there is no paint on the road an (unmarked) crosswalk may still exist [1] and drivers are supposed to yield to a pedestrian in a marked or unmarked crosswalk [2].

[1]: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySectio....

[2]: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySectio...

gregatragenet3 21 minutes ago|||
Getting more pedantic, less than 1pct of the population is in California.

Pretty clear parent meant people who cross against the light / mid-block when there is a crossing 50ft away / stepping in front of the one car on the road when they could look up for one second and step out behind that car etc. in other words the people who put off 'main character' vibes.

smohare 8 minutes ago||
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sheiyei 28 minutes ago|||
Getting pedantic here, "no light / crosswalk" means no crosswalk, painted or not.
zeroonetwothree 9 minutes ago|||
I never see this being an issue. On the other hand I often see cars blast by stop signs without stopping or ignore marked crosswalks with passengers inside.

No wonder pedestrian deaths are up so much the past few years

Spooky23 31 minutes ago||||
It’s going over your head. He’s talking about certain people.
schrodinger 27 minutes ago||||
Depending on where you live it may not really be relatable to you, but living in NYC -- there are people that will intentionally jay walk on a green light and even _stare you down_ knowing that you will stop and let them pass.

People jay walk when there's no traffic all the time, that's totally fine. This is a totally different act of passive aggression.

koolba 12 minutes ago||
> Depending on where you live it may not really be relatable to you, but living in NYC -- there are people that will intentionally jay walk on a green light and even _stare you down_ knowing that you will stop and let them pass.

This is the speed walking equivalent of picking up pennies in front of a steam roller. Saves a min here and then until you pay for it big time.

smohare 12 minutes ago|||
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jraines 29 minutes ago|||
Last time I flew my family was very early to the gate; it was me, my wife, my 5 and 3 year old girls, and a very elderly lady in a wheelchair who was blasting Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” from her phone speakers.
jghn 4 minutes ago|||
I can't remember the last time I've been on a flight, train, or bus where there wasn't at least one person playing audio of some sort without headphones.
maccard 17 minutes ago|||
I was on a 2 hour flight this week. The guy in front of me listened to a political podcast on speaker that was loud enough it cut through my noise cancelling earbuds. There was absolutely no chance I was risking my safety calling him out on it in that scenario.

> usually get quickly pointed down by other passengers, personnel or security

I’ve never, not once, heard a member of staff ask someone to use headphones on transport.

Findecanor 1 hour ago|||
I've experienced it all over Europe. Trains with reserved seats tend to have a separate "silent car" for this reason.
halapro 1 hour ago|||
It's a thing everywhere except very well-behaved places/countries. This means it's almost everywhere.

The last time I had an uncle blast his Doujin feed at full volume next to me, I suggested he lower the volume, he didn't care, so I blasted my own feed at louder volume. He got it then. Sadly people a few rows back did the same on the next train...

verall 1 hour ago|||
From what I can tell, if no rule is enforced, about 2-5% of people think it's totally normal to scroll tiktok or instagram at full volume in public.

So on a crowded bus you've normally got 1 or 2. Behavior is actually much better on airplanes, usually (maybe 1-2 in ~150 passenger plane), and I have never seen someone who did not silence their phone after being asked politely by the attendant.

cjbgkagh 37 minutes ago|||
Very much a thing and one of the many reasons I'm becoming more of a recluse, shared public spaces are becoming rather unpleasant. Mostly in the US and LatAm, a fair amount in the UK, not so much in Germany.
plagiarist 17 minutes ago||
There are fewer and fewer shared public spaces every year anyway. It feels like everything is getting taken over by franchises that want to maximize customer throughput.
nslsm 1 hour ago|||
That's because in Europe certain demographics don't catch many planes or trains. But they do catch the tube or the bus, so get on one of those and enjoy the experience.
DaSHacka 39 minutes ago||
Lol was wondering how long I would have to scroll before someone pointed out the obvious. People talking about the "collapse of the societal contract", like I wonder how that happened....
wolfi1 36 minutes ago|||
it's usually some guy on the neighbouring table at McDonald's
gspr 1 hour ago|||
I've definitely experienced this on public transit in cities in several different countries here in Europe. It's not an everyday experience, but it definitely happens.
pjmlp 1 hour ago||
Yes, but that isn't a flight.
gspr 6 minutes ago||
But you said people on busses and trains doing this get shut down. My experience is they don't.
bluecalm 46 minutes ago|||
My experience is the opposite. People blast music or other sounds on flights all the time. In Europe it's also very common to smoke in public, including beaches, restaurants, areas around building entrances. Literring is also very common.

Even Switzerland is dirty because cigarette buts are everywhere. It's just that some % of the population are inconsiderate assholes and only heavy enforcement works vs than. Unfortunately this is something our current society is not willing to do.

Hamuko 52 minutes ago|||
Local trains are full of them.
throaway75463 54 minutes ago||
[flagged]
osti 1 hour ago||
During flights? Sounds a bit harsh.
cobbzilla 1 hour ago||
Have you ever tried to sleep while the person next to you watches a movie at full volume?
furyofantares 1 hour ago||
Yeah, it sucks. I agree with you, they should be brutally murdered.
nxpnsv 1 hour ago||
That's too harsh, a regular murder would suffice.
sharkweek 1 hour ago|||
Just put them in row 24 on a Boeing 737 max and let the problem take care of itself.
halapro 1 hour ago||||
Just open the window
lostlogin 1 hour ago||
Boeing tried this new feature.
halapro 58 minutes ago||
Not a bug, works as intended.
lelanthran 1 hour ago|||
> That's too harsh, a regular murder would suffice.

Correct. Kicking someone off during a flight and not giving them a parachute counts as a regular murder...

verdverm 56 minutes ago||
Requisite link to satirical study

"Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma when jumping from aircraft: randomized controlled trial"

https://www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k5094

rendaw 36 minutes ago|||
For all siblings, I think parent was suggesting "while in flight". i.e. dropping them from 30k feet. Hence harsh...
RobotToaster 48 minutes ago|||
Not harsh enough. They belong in the special level of hell reserved for child molesters and people who talk in the theatre.
Hamuko 51 minutes ago|||
Harsh, but fair.
SOLAR_FIELDS 46 minutes ago||
Now explain why it wouldn’t also be fair to kick people off that were loudly emitting disgusting flatulence. Is it because they “might” not have control over it? Can I not claim I also “might” not have the control over my impulsive desire to listen to music or that I can’t use headphones for a medical issue?

I mean such a thing I would say equally detracts from the flying experience, so why not also kick those people off?

Edit: not sure why I’m getting downvoted, this is a legitimate question. I genuinely want to hear the justification.

DaSHacka 36 minutes ago||
You'd have a more convincing argument if you argued for a passenger with Tourette's or something. Bodily functions are obviously different from watching a movie at full volume, because there's never a situation where you would be involuntarily blasting the audio of your show or whatever to the whole plane.
SOLAR_FIELDS 33 minutes ago||
Okay, Tourette’s then. Should we kick people off for Tourette’s?

Your comment also presupposes two things: that flatulence is always involuntary and blasting music isn’t. Let’s say I have a form of Tourette’s that forces me to involuntarily blast noise and music and I have medical papers to prove it. Is it okay then?

I would absolutely support it if you could demonstrate that those two things are actually true. My point is: Who gets to decide what’s legitimately an involuntary medical issue and what isn’t, and where is the line that demarcates it? And what is the point of this exercise? It’s to prevent people from forcing everyone else to have a worse experience for their own personal gain, which flatulence is a form of that you could argue, so why is blasting music fundamentally different?

recursive 11 minutes ago||
We're talking about music coming from a phone. Not a person. Just turn the phone off or uninstall tiktok. Or put it in your bag.
throwaway894345 1 hour ago|||
Seems like this flew right over a few heads.
widowlark 1 hour ago||
and yet the joke fell right into our laps
sebastiennight 1 hour ago||
United says we should tone down the sarcasm
quietsegfault 1 hour ago|||
NO TICKET
lelanthran 58 minutes ago||
I wonder how many people got this reference.

Anyway, for those who did not: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCZ86O3PO-U

chisel192 1 hour ago||
> During flights? Sounds a bit harsh.

Sounds harsh to you.

Let the market decide.

Vote with your wallet and fly a different airline.

saint11 1 hour ago|||
But kicking someone off mid-flight at high altitude is still a bit harsh. I hope they give them parachutes at least.
dguest 36 minutes ago|||
FUN FACT: Aviation rules require that any plane carrying a parachute must have at least one for every person on board. Hopefully the reason is obvious.

Now given that, do you really want to pay the extra cost of flying with 300 parachutes just so mr-full-volume-phone can have one?

jjmarr 19 minutes ago||
I've packed my own parachute for this hypothetical situation.
HPsquared 1 hour ago||||
Only if they paid extra at check-in.
doubled112 1 hour ago||
And you specifically have to request it. It isn’t a normal option during purchase.
gumby271 1 hour ago||||
Bet it won't happen twice though.
MPSimmons 1 hour ago|||
> give them parachutes at least

the first time

andrewflnr 1 hour ago||||
I'm going to vote with my wallet by moving United up my priority list.
integralid 1 hour ago|||
Either you missed the joke or I missed your sarcasm. I read GP as a joke: being literally kicked out of a flight in air is a death sentence, which is a bit harsh penalty indeed.
gnabgib 1 hour ago||
Discussion (18 points, 15 days ago, 15 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47276399
binarymax 55 minutes ago|
I want to echo the top comment in that post. Apple removing the headphone jack from iPhones was absolutely criminal.
raggi 1 hour ago||
Ok, but how about kicking sick people off of flights, particularly trans continental?
INTPenis 59 minutes ago||
I'm behind this 100%.

I got a SARS virus flying to Udon Thani in 2019. We were seated next to two thai guys who were so sick they could barely sit up straight. We offered them help and treats because they looked like they were about to vomit.

Plane lands, next day I'm sick. I was laid up for 2 weeks with fever, the shits, and I had a weird spontaneous cough for over 1 month after I got better.

I bet most of that plane got sick, and it was so damn avoidable.

IncreasePosts 23 minutes ago||
The problem is there can he huge penalties for not flying when you booked. You might not be able to rebook your flight or hotel or days off so you're stuck either getting everyone sick or perhaps being out thousands of dollars or not going on vacation at all.
JumpCrisscross 1 hour ago||
> how about kicking sick people off of flights

Difficult for the airline to do given the myriad of health privacy adjacents.

sebastiennight 1 hour ago||
What if we asked the President to give us a quick rundown of each passenger's health?
petermcneeley 4 minutes ago||
Obligatory Spock https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr82dZpCr48
mikkupikku 1 hour ago||
At cruising altitude, I hope.
HPsquared 1 hour ago||
I assume it's about blasting others with noise, not company sponsored headphones.
mindslight 1 hour ago|
A disinforming clickbait headline strikes again. This isn't about it being mandatory to use headphones, ala TNG "The Game". Rather it's about using speakers that broadcast sound for everyone to "enjoy". I haven't been molested and crushed^w^w^w^wflown in quite some time, but with the noise floor on airplanes being so high to begin with I'd imagine the result is much worse than somewhere that is at least quieter to start.
hxorr 31 minutes ago||
This sounds like a USA problem..
zeroonetwothree 5 minutes ago||
I have definitely seen people use speakers in countries other than the USA.
penguin_booze 17 minutes ago||
1 of n problems.
temporallobe 1 hour ago||
Good.
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