Rise of infuriating new trend that's made flying even more unpleasant

A growing number of travelers have been taking phone calls on speaker or watching movies and shows without headphones, making an already arduous task of flying even more unpleasant.

Witnesses told the Wall Street Journal the offenders span the generational and socioeconomic spectrum, from grandparents on speakerphone to toddlers on iPads and from first-class to coach.

Some airlines, including American Airlines and Alaska Air, have now taken to making announcements urging customers to use headphones. Delta also added a plea for headphone usage at the bottom of its in-flight entertainment page.

'I will see it probably every single flight,' an unidentified flight attendant for a major US airline said.

He claimed that pointed glances are usually enough to shame the out-loud movie watchers, explaining: 'They're embarrassing themselves enough as it is.' 

But the problem is not only limited to the flights themselves. Sasha Sinclair told how she watches as tech bros at the boarding gate at San Francisco International Airport pace back and forth taking business calls without headphones - sometimes broadcasting potential Silicon Valley secrets through the jet bridge.

'It's definitely a little alarming,' she said.

Tracey Parsons added 'it's worse in the airport in the gate area,' noting she has heard her fellow passengers' phone calls at every US airport she has passed through in recent years.

'I don't want to listen to your phone call. I don't want to listen to both sides,' Parsons said. 'I don't want to watch TikTok with you. 

'It's gobsmacking to me - we used to have headphones.'

Part of the problem appears to be the change in technology and sales tactics.

Headphones used to be included with purchases of new iPhones, but as Bluetooth headphones become more prevalent, people try to preserve their battery life for the flight.

Others say people abandoned the old norms of public decorum after the pandemic.

In fact, podcasts and sports games could now be heard in open-plan offices, and passersby can usually catch snippets of phone conversations on the sidewalk.

Transit authorities have also struggled to get passengers to keep their music to themselves on the trains and subways. 

As a result, some travelers have decided to take matters into their own hands.

Neil Berger, for example, attempted to intervene at Air Canada's Maple Leaf Lounge in Vancouver last month, when he could no longer endure the sound of a video blaring nearby.

He said he turned to the perpetrator and said, 'I think you might have forgotten your headphones. I have an extra pair.'

The listener 'literally looked up, didn't say a word and walked away. Which is honestly a decent outcome,' she said.

Shannon Black, from Vancouver, Washington, also told how she was chastised years ago for watching a movie without her headphones during a flight.

'I was mortified - I didn't realize she could hear it,' Black said. 'I was so apologetic and I of course muted it immediately.'

When Black was struggling to tune out the sound of a woman video chatting on speakerphone in Delta's Salt Lake City airport lounge last month, she then tried to intervene, herself.

'I said, "Excuse me, would you mind using headphones? That's louder than you realize and we can all hear,"' she recounted.

But the woman shot back that she found the suggestion 'incredibly rude.'

'I didn't expect that,' Black admitted.

Joe Rojas also told how he and his wife were relaxing at a Delta lounge in Kansas City, Missouri when a woman strode in, set down her bags and turned on a television show.

Realizing nobody else was going to act, Rojas then sat down next to the woman, leaned over and started to watch the show with her.

'I said, "Since we all have to hear it, I thought we should watch it together,"' he said.

The woman then fumbled through her bags to locate her headphones.

'Of course I had to go back to my seat right across from her and pretend I hadn't called her out in front of everyone,' he recounted.

Rojas went on to say he would do it again, but when he heard a woman playing music from her phone at full blast in a doctor's office waiting room a few days later, he decided to let it go.

'I didn't want to push my luck,' he explained.