Plane headphone etiquette: Should you remove headphones whenever you interact with cabin crew?

[twinaisle]

We has a super CM the other night. Both wifi and IFE working, so just about everyone with headphones in or on. He took orders before takeoff, then simply mouthed ‘another drink?’ or proactively offered top ups by sowing the bottle. No audible communication required!

Wonderful! Bring. It. On.

Call me old fashioned but I'd rather prefer headphones off when I'm talking to someone or when someone's talking to me.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Call me old fashioned but I'd rather prefer headphones off when I'm talking to someone or when someone's talking to me.

It’s not personal!

Because of service pattern inconsistency on VA, passengers don’t know when they’re going to be approached by crew. They don’t know the order of the meal taking, or when the meals will be brought out, or in which order they will be brought out.

By the time the meal turns up, and we have our hands full with taking the tray out, we can’t also pause the program and remove the headphones. Not enough hands!

We also don’t know when the crew will come back to collect trays. Or if they’re walking past, whether it’s to collect trays or go down to the rear galley. Or you see a member of crew approaching and take your headphones out, ready to engage, and they say ‘no’, as they’ve just come up for guard duty as a pilot is using the WC.

How many times are we supposed to take headphones out?

With qantas the meals come out on the cart, row by row. You can be prepared, with headphones off. If VA had the same service pattern, passengers could be better prepared.

You can have just as good communication without needing it to be audible. And under the circumstances, it doesn’t imply any sort of disrespect.

 

[twinaisle]

It’s not personal!

Because of service pattern inconsistency on VA, passengers don’t know when they’re going to be approached by crew. They don’t know the order of the meal taking, or when the meals will be brought out, or in which order they will be brought out.

By the time the meal turns up, and we have our hands full with taking the tray out, we can’t also pause the program and remove the headphones. Not enough hands!

We also don’t know when the crew will come back to collect trays. Or if they’re walking past, whether it’s to collect trays or go down to the rear galley. Or you see a member of crew approaching and take your headphones out, ready to engage, and they say ‘no’, as they’ve just come up for guard duty as a pilot is using the WC.

How many times are we supposed to take headphones out?

With qantas the meals come out on the cart, row by row. You can be prepared, with headphones off. If VA had the same service pattern, passengers could be better prepared.

You can have just as good communication without needing it to be audible. And under the circumstances, it doesn’t imply any sort of disrespect.

If I was sitting in any of the seats and I saw the F.A stand at the row facing towards the seats then from my peripheral vision I would assume they're there to do something especially if they have a bottle of wine or a tray to deliver. Savvy flyers have their trays out ready to go

I had guests past few days who took out their headphones every single interaction. Topping up water, clearing tray, offering snacks.

Their headphones came out every single time and this resulted with them finishing off the Shiraz stock onboard

 

[Human]

Headphone etiquette is tricky.

I’m a schoolteacher and we repeatedly emphasise to our students that during conversation, as a common courtesy, they should always remove their headphones. It’s a way of showing respect to the other person and of showing them that they matter.

Do I breach that rule when I’m flying? Repeatedly.

At the very least, when I keep the headphones in, I pause the sound/video, and put the headphones into transparency mode so I can clearly hear what’s being said to me. Of course the crew don’t necessarily know that I’ve done that. But it means that I can hear everything they say without them having to repeat themselves. And if I don’t quite hear something, before asking them to repeat it I’ll remove the headphones at that point.

In Business/First class, I’m more likely to remove the headphones because the interaction with the cabin crew is likely to be longer and more complex, with more options.

Do I feel an article on headphone etiquette coming on, @AFF Editor ?

 

[AIRwin]

Do I feel an article on headphone etiquette coming on, @AFF Editor ?

@AFF Editor please title it AIR-tiquette - by request of @AIRwin

 

[twinaisle]

@AFF Editor please title it AIR-tiquette - by request of @AIRwin

Publish it for the general travel pax too

 

[MEL_Traveller]

If I was sitting in any of the seats and I saw the F.A stand at the row facing towards the seats then from my peripheral vision I would assume they're there to do something especially if they have a bottle of wine or a tray to deliver. Savvy flyers have their trays out ready to go

I had guests past few days who took out their headphones every single interaction. Topping up water, clearing tray, offering snacks.

Their headphones came out every single time and this resulted with them finishing off the Shiraz stock onboard

I’ve probably had - literally - 100 variations of service over the last year. Crew coming out of the galley with a tray could go right past to row 2 rather than stopping at row 1. A person sitting in the same seat every week could be the first, or the last passenger to be served. Of course we see crew in the periphery, but it doesn’t mean service is going to be offered to our pair of seats!

Flawless service on my last flight - top ups, intuitive, snacks - yet barely a word to anyone in the cabin! Partially because the meal choices were explained and orders taken while we were on the ground. Dispensing with that part after takeoff.

Post automatically merged: Sunday at 10:50 PM

@AFF Editor please title it AIR-tiquette - by request of @AIRwin

Or is that EAR-tiquette??

 

[BNEFlyer]

Interesting to hear the perspective of an FA on this topic, especially in J. I'd prefer/expect an FA to tap me on the shoulder or interrupt me and offer the water, wine or whatever. Otherwise I'd get off the flight wondering why I was ignored the whole time.

 

[RooFlyer]

I can't recall having service offered to me and not being able to remove the airpod from the closest ear to be able to hear and respond. I mean, someone looming over you means something is about to happen! Sometimes if I'm a bit slow I'll have to ask them to repeat, but there is an exchange.

If I'm watching something, its on my phone, which is sitting on the tray.

 

[RooFlyer]

I'd prefer/expect an FA to tap me on the shoulder or interrupt me and offer the water, wine or whatever. Otherwise I'd get off the flight wondering why I was ignored the whole time.

FAs don't sneak up and address you from behind & I think tapping on shoulder would be a no-no. They stop beside the row of seats you are in, sometimes stoop or crouch down and then ask or offer; unless someone in a window seat was facing towards the window and totally engrossed in whatever they were listening to, I can't imagine not realising that the FA is addressing someone; maybe that's what is being talked about here. But once they did realise they were being asked or offered, I take the earpiece/headphone out as a matter of courtesy.

 

[MooTime]

If you got your headphones on and just expect the FA to somehow know what you want and refuse to withdraw your head gear from you ears then gee that's just shocking manners.
Speaks volumes about some ppl these days.

To state the VA order of service is sporadic or so, Gee it's a ~2 hour flight, do we expect a robotic precise timing service?

Headphones or eyes stuck inside your mobile is a clear sign I'm doing what I'm doing and am freely ignoring everything & everyone else. Social etiquette going out the proverbial clearly imo.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

FAs don't sneak up and address you from behind & I think tapping on shoulder would be a no-no. They stop beside the row of seats you are in, sometimes stoop or crouch down and then ask or offer; unless someone in a window seat was facing towards the window and totally engrossed in whatever they were listening to, I can't imagine not realising that the FA is addressing someone; maybe that's what is being talked about here. But once they did realise they were being asked or offered, take the earpiece/headphone out as a matter of courtesy.

An FA is walking down the cabin with a bottle of water. They make eye contact, slightly raise the bottle and motion if you want some. Do you need to take out your earphones for that? You’d never get through five minutes of a program!

Sure, if the FA is explaining the meal and asking your choice, you are engaging in a conversation and you remove earphones.

But after that, for a brief engagement… especially where there’s no audible interaction.., I don’t believe it’s necessary.

What was pro0sed above was that *no* or *limited* service would be offered if someone had their headphones on. I’m not sure that right to say you must remove them to all transactions, even those that are non-verbal.

MooTime… sporadic service isn’t a problem, but you can’t expect pax to be immediately prepared for an engagement. You may have to wait while the passenger readies themselves, pauses their program, and removes headphones. If service went 1A-F and 2A-F pax would know. But it doesn’t. Sometimes crew jump around, or pause mid service. And when meals come out they don’t follow a pattern either.

 

[MooTime]

An FA is walking down the cabin with a bottle of water. They make eye contact, slightly raise the bottle and motion if you want some. Do you need to take out your earphones for that? You’d never get through five minutes of a program!

Sure, if the FA is explaining the meal and asking your choice, you are engaging in a conversation and you remove earphones.

But after that, for a brief engagement… especially where there’s no audible interaction.., I don’t believe it’s necessary.

MooTime… sporadic service isn’t a problem, but you can’t expect pax to be immediately prepared for an engagement. You may have to wait while the passenger readies themselves, pauses their program, and removes headphones. If service went 1A-F and 2A-F pax would know. But it doesn’t. Sometimes crew jump around, or pause mid service. And when meals come out they don’t follow a pattern either. So

Fair points.

 

[RooFlyer]

An FA is walking down the cabin with a bottle of water. They make eye contact, slightly raise the bottle and motion if you want some. Do you need to take out your earphones for that? You’d never get through five minutes of a program!

Honestly, I would and I do, and say no thanks or yes please. In a case like that, maybe the FA actually wouldn’t expect me to but it’s just the way I am programmed.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Honestly, I would and I do, and say no thanks or yes please. In a case like that, maybe the FA actually wouldn’t expect me to but it’s just the way I am programmed.

you can still say ‘thank you’ or give an equally appreciative non-verbal response. The two aren’t mutually exclusive!

But to not be offered a service simply because you have headphones on potentially leaves the passenger with almost no program time

 

[twinaisle]

you can still say ‘thank you’ or give an equally appreciative non-verbal response. The two aren’t mutually exclusive!

But to not be offered a service simply because you have headphones on potentially leaves the passenger with almost no program time

If you acknowledge then that's ok but if you're sitting there with eyes glued to device and make no effort with body language to indicate that you want something then it does come off that you probably want to be left alone.

FA's generally won't tap you or touch you to get your attention in that scenario.

I guess YMMV. 97% have no problems to give a few seconds away from their entertainment when engaging with someone but each to their own in this regards.

I guess less interaction means more program time just let us know when you want something.