The Obnoxious Travel Behavior That Could Get You Kicked Off The Plane

One of the most obnoxious travel habits can now get passengers ejected from United Airlines flights at any point during their travel.

The airline, according to a report from The New York Post, quietly added a line to its “Contract of Carriage” when it updated in late February. That line stated that passengers would not be permitted to use electronic devices with sound unless they used headphones.

Rule 21 of United’s Contract of Carriage — one of the boxes that all passengers check off, usually without reading the underlying fine print, prior to paying for their tickets — lists a litany of offenses that could potentially get them booted from the plane.

“Passengers who fail to use headphones while listening to audio or video content” risk being removed from flights just as those who “appear to be intoxicated or under the influence of drugs,” who are “wearing or possessing on or about their person concealed or unconcealed deadly or dangerous weapons,” or who cause a disturbance or disobey instructions from any member of the flight crew — among other infractions.

In addition to removing passengers from the current flight, United Airlines also retains “the right to refuse transport on a permanent or temporary basis” — meaning that the passenger could face a permanent ban. Further, “any passenger who, by reason of engaging in the above activities in this Rule 21, causes UA any loss, damage or expense of any kind, consents and acknowledges that he or she shall reimburse UA for any such loss, damage or expense.”

The addition of the headphones requirement comes as Starlink is set to expand service on flights, meaning that more passengers will likely be streaming audio and video content in flight.

“We’ve always encouraged customers to use headphones when listening to audio content – and our Wi-Fi rules already remind customers to use headphones. With the expansion of Starlink (a high-speed, satellite internet service from SpaceX), it seemed like a good time to make that even clearer by adding it to the contract of carriage,” United Airlines told The Post in a statement.