Travelers have recently reported encountering “gate lice” and “seat squatters,” but there’s one other controversial plane trend sparking fiery discussions on social media.
Flyers are calling out fellow passengers who play music or watch videos out loud not using earbuds.
Within the “r/unitedairlines” Reddit forum, one flyer titled a post “Anti-headphones,” asking, “Do we’ve got a term for our fellow passengers that don’t use headphones? That is getting out of hand.”
The user also addressed how travelers who cut lines when boarding got the name “gate lice.”
“Hadn’t heard that before and made me laugh,” the user wrote.
Users took to the comments section to debate travelers who hearken to audio on devices without headphones.
“Speaker scum,” a couple of user wrote, suggesting a nickname to present the travelers.
One other posted, “I’m all for the upcoming free wifi but dreading everyone with free wifi streaming, on calls, blasting music.”
“United has added to their announcements asking pax to silence device or use headphones,” said a flyer.
Fox News Digital reached out to United Airlines for comment.
“I keep several of the free airline headsets in my bag. Offering them to someone doing this normally gets the purpose across,” one person wrote.
“Unfortunately the people using their speakers are unable to listen to the announcement over the sound of their speakers,” one other user commented.
“Lots of of flights a 12 months, I even have never bumped into it. Perhaps it helps I wear headphones so I wouldn’t know either way. I do know commenting this that [on] my next flight I’ll see it (hear it),” said one user.
“I’ll just make it a part of my ‘welcome to the friendly skies’ announcement. ‘Please be courteous to your fellow passengers by silencing your personal devices and using headphones or I’ll instruct everyone to coach you on why headphones are essential,’” one other person wrote.
“The quantity of times it has happened to me within the last 4 months it’s silly. Longest time this occurred was with a passenger sitting next to me on a RED EYE for six.5 hours STRAIGHT. No breaks. Nothing,” shared one user.
On United’s website, listed under “Inflight Entertainment,” the airline shares a “Traveler pro tip.”
“Don’t worry in the event you forget your headphones to your flight. In the event that they’re available, you possibly can request free earbuds,” says the airline.
Brandon Blewett, the Texas-based writer of “How you can Avoid Strangers on Airplanes,” told Fox News Digital that he sees this on a regular basis.
“More often than not, it’s people scrolling through Reels, YouTube Shorts or TikTok — or playing mobile games with the sound effects on,” he said.
Blewett said he has noticed a couple of airlines add a quiet cabin policy to the top of their pre-flight announcements.
“They now remind passengers that in the event that they want to look at or play something on their device, the sound must undergo headphones or be muted — even for youths,” he said.
Blewett said he has seen flight attendants step in when others are inconsiderate.
“Sometimes there’s an innocent Bluetooth hiccup, and you possibly can tell by the best way people scramble in sheer panic to show down the quantity (myself included),” said Blewett.
