Somehow this is becoming the new annoying trend. Or, maybe, it's just me who is becoming more sensitive to it each year. But is it allowed to listen to audio through loudspeaker from phones, tablets or laptops in a flight? Do some airlines (I wonder specifically in the EU, but probably it's a glo...
@Willeke for UK trains the Daily Mail recently reported"Don’t like louts blaring out their loud music? Then get off the train!" But some trains do have a "quiet area".
@WeatherVane, many Dutch trains have a quiet area as well, but in those even low level conversations are not welcome. Train staff are trained to handle those who play loud music (but still do not always manage.)
@Harper-ReinstateMonica generally you can ask airplane staff for headphones if there's in-flight entertainment, tho they might need an adapter to be turned into a 3.5" jack, and a dongle to fit into their phones. Now that I'm done with typing this comment I realize that it's way harder these days than I initially thought, sigh.
If you are on the spectrum (or in any situation that requires relative silence), hearing protections or noise cancelling apparatus are practically a must now.
No, it's not just you. Listening on headphones so you don't disturb others is called "common courtesy". It's just that "courtesy" has gone out the window and isn't "common" anymore. :( (Of course, when I was a teenager, I didn't care that you could still hear my music coming out of my headphones, but I'm paying for it now with tinnitus...)
I guess I don't fly enough, I've never encountered this. Everyone on my flights uses headphones or earbuds. The worst I've run into is when my neighbor's sound is loud enough that I can hear it coming from their buds.
@Tom Boomboxes have the advantage of being loud and clear. Tiny phones have tiny speakers, because of which people are turning them up to 11, which make ear piercing sounds (at least for me).
@Harper-ReinstateMonica They give out cheap earbuds if you don't have any of your own. I was on a flight a few weeks ago where the flight attendant asked a passenger to use headphones and offered the airline earbuds, but said they can't listen to audio on speaker.
Common reasons why people do this: 1) lack of knowledge whether bluetooth headphones can be used and how to enable them in airplane mode, 2) watching a movie with a friend
From my experience, the poorer the country/city, the more likely you are to see inconsiderate music players on public transit. It's an unfortunate fact of life these days.
Person next to you watching a movie loudly on their phone? Lean in, pay intense attention, and laugh loudly at every other line (yes, even if it's a sad movie).
@jpa I've also witnessed people configuring their brand new phone in the train at maximum sound level, letting everyone know what notification sound and ringtone they're transitioning through and which one they ended up choosing.
These days I travel SWA within the USA only, about 5-10 times per year. Maybe half the time the flight attendant will explicitly say that any device audio must be silenced or used over headphones. Whether it's actually a policy is a little irrelevant, because flight attendants have some power once that door is closed, including asking the captain to kick you off (if it's before takeoff).
Considering that (policies or not) airlines don’t seem to have any trouble with children screaming into other passengers’ faces and kicking other people’s seats for hours on end, it seems unlikely they would be too forthcoming in actually dealing with this. (Yes, I’m ranting. Yes, I just got off a three-hour flight where a kid right behind me was non-stop screaming and kicking my chair. Yes, both the parent and cabin crew told me there was nothing they could do, that’s just how kids are. Yes, I was ready to one-up @user27701’s suggestion and kick the wee bugger off during flight.)
Discussion on question by Quora Feans…
Discussion on question by Quora Feans…