Was your headset free of charge?
 

Question?
Last night another Flyer talker and myself got into a debate over headset movie sales on UA. I told her I can't remember the last time I paid for a headset?? She, we'll call her AA platinum, believes that all US carriers charge for head sets.
So my question is, does UA charge for headsets? More specifically does UA charge for the headsets when showing a movie? (non-international)

UA does not charge for headsets anywhere on its system.

They were free a couple of weeks ago domestic

UA hasn't charged for headsets in approximately 2 years I believe.

Thanks so much FT'er.. Just another reason to choose UA over AA.

From UA's website:
http://www.ual.com/site/primary/0,10017,1070,00.html

I also think it was about two years ago they started offering them free.

Is UA the only carrier that does not charge?

CO recently started to "sell" headsets for $2, you can use them on future flights with no additional charge.

Before they were free (1990):

BODY:
What is this, the Twilight Zone?

A lawyer on an airplane is watching the in-flight movie about a lawyer who gets caught in an ominous legal web, and he finds himself caught in an ominous legal web because he's watching the movie about . . .

You get the drift.

The movie aboard the United Air Lines flight early Friday morning was "Presumed Innocent," Harrison Ford accused of murder. The passenger was tax attorney Steve Sun, who got the cuffs slapped on him for petty theft, for using his own earphones to listen to the soundtrack of the movie without paying the $4 headphone rental. "The airport police told me this is the stupidest arrest they had to make," said Sun. "Actually, they used more colorful language than that."

Alan B. Wayne, a local United official, remarked, "It's always interesting that these people are lawyers."

In the small hours of Friday morning, aboard a not-too-crowded flight, Sun was flying home to Los Angeles from his grandfather's funeral. For $4, the flight attendant said passengers could rent headphones to listen to "Presumed Innocent."

Sun had his own. He happened to find them in an airport trash can years ago, but you can buy them in stores, he says, and he has used them often before, no problem.

Just as things start to come undone on film for Harrison Ford's character, a flight attendant tapped Sun on the shoulder. He could not use those headphones without paying, she said.

Now, Sun was admittedly a little cranky from a red-eye that left Washington an hour late. If the $4 was really to rent a headset, he already had his own, right?

"I know what you can and can't do on an airplane. I know you can't cause a scene or you're in big trouble. I thought if you have your own headset, why do you have to pay to get their headset? And seeing as they're showing you the picture on the screen anyway . . ."

As he recounts the sotto voce exchange, the flight attendant said Sun should either stop listening or pay the $4. He said no. She relayed the captain's message: That, "If you don't stop watching the movie they'll have to call security when you land. . . . I said OK. I definitely would not have started an argument."

He kept watching the movie, and "I said to pass the message on to the captain that I'm a lawyer and if anything happened on the ground, I would file a suit."

Just after midnight, "We got off the plane, and there was the airport police. I actually went up to them and said, 'I did it, I'm the culprit.' "

They said they would have to take him to the station for theft. "I said theft of what? They said the sound of the movie. I kind of laughed and said, 'You're kidding.' "

"I probably made it into a scene it shouldn't have been made into, but theirs (the flight crew's) seemed like an overreaction."

Airport Police Capt. John Bangs said his officers carried out the captain's "private person" arrest. They handcuffed Sun, and took him to the Los Angeles Police Department's Pacific Division. After three hours, police let him go without booking him, referring the case to the city attorney.

Sun admitted later that as he sat handcuffed to a bench, he had a few unsettling visions dancing in his head, "like the grounds for disciplinary proceedings in the (state Bar)."

Now, the big question. Was he making trouble, or making law?

This cracks open all manner of legal worm cans, Sun thinks. Because the audio comes to all the seats, can any passenger who has paid the fare tap in?"This is the first I've heard that you have to pay even if you use your own headset. I thought they literally charged for the use of the headset."

United thinks Sun is being disingenuous. It's obvious, says

spokesman Joe Hopkins, that "the charge we impose is for the use of the audio track of the movie . . . the policy is that it is for the soundtrack and not for the physical headset."

United's Wayne: "I think personal headphones can be used but you have to pay for it, which is I think quite understandable. That's standard policy on all carriers."

As the lady says in a different movie, fasten your seat belts; it's going to be a bumpy ride. Maybe some new ruling or policy will emerge. If renting means the sound instead of the headphones, perhaps cabin announcements will be changed to say so specifically, even legalistically.

Now, as for the film . . .

"It's riveting," says Wayne. "It's worth the $4. Double that."

"The movie was fine," says Sun. "I thought the book was better."

Contributing to this story was Times staff writer Nieson Himmel

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Who is John Galt?
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In fact headphones are usually in the seatpockets when you board.

You mean to tell me other airlines, which don't offer anything like Channel 9 to begin with, actually charge for headphones? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Are there airlines that CHARGE for the headsets?! That's crazy! Next thing they will stop offering food in domestic routes !

Wake up!! Some are already doing that...

Is there someone here that insists on the fact that UA is NOT a good airline ?!

Come on !!!

Delta charges $5 for headsets for adults and children, who used to be cheaper. They cal this an "entertainment charge" and make the point explicitly that you have to pay even if you use your own headphones. I've never seen them make a fuss over someone not paying, however. Anyway, United beats most other airlines on this point, and many others, too.

Bruce

Not to sound cynical, but I always figured UA stopped charging for the headsets mainly because there were (and still are) so many problems with the sound or other aspects of the entertainment. Seems like most of the time (in Economy anyway) you have to fiddle with the plug, and have it plugged in just so, to even hear anything. And often only one side (right or left) works. Or the sound is so garbled you can't understand the dialog. Not to mention the movie that was started in the middle (and the problem couldn't be corrected because there was something wrong with the tape). Or the fact that sometimes, if the viewing angle isn't just right, you really can't see what's on the LCD screen. And on and on. Who wants to pay even $4 for this quality of service? Of course you can get a refund (and I have) but what a nuisance.

So I think UA just took the path of least resistance.

Kathy

They don't charge for the headsets, period, and haven't done so for quite some time.

It's probably more of a hassle for the flight attendants to collect the $4 than it's worth so they figured they'd just drop that.

Come to think of it, what's stopping FAs from just pocketing the fee themselves? Or am I naive to assume that some of them actually do collect it for the airline?