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A woman was left red-faced at an airport when she asked another passenger to use headphones instead of taking the phone call on speakerphone.
Shannon Black was traveling from Salt Lake City International Airport to Portland after seeing family for Thanksgiving when she had an awkward interaction in the airport’s Sky Club lounge.
“The noise from other people’s speakerphones is really distracting and this woman’s volume was very loud,” she said Newsweek. “I was nervous about asking her to use headphones, but I’ve read a lot of comments on this topic and most people wish they had said something. There have been times where I didn’t and wished I had , so I did.”
In a Reddit postwhich received thousands of votes and hundreds of responses, Black explains that the other woman was on the phone with what sounded like a child and was sitting about 30 feet away.
“I walked up to her and said, ‘Excuse me, would you mind using headphones? That’s louder than you realize and we can all hear you,'” she wrote.
“She seemed shocked and then told me she thought it was incredibly rude of me to say that. I just shrugged my shoulders and walked away. But she turned down the volume or put on headphones because we can’t hear it anymore ! Good luck, I guess? Was I rude?”
Black said Newsweek: “When she told me I was being incredibly rude, I didn’t know what to say back and I know my face turned red.”
Black was traveling during what was a record Thanksgiving season for the number of airline passengers. The Transportation Security Administration revealed that December 1, 2024 was the busiest day ever as 3.087 million individuals were screened at airports nationwide.
Etiquette expert Diane Gottsman highlighted the interaction between the two passengers. She told me Newsweek: “Almost everyone wishes that loud speakers in an airport, on an airplane, or in any other public space would be courteous, keep their volume low, and use earplugs so that no one else could hear their conversation.
“Asking someone to use headphones is quite a bold move because you don’t know how the other person will react. It’s not courteous to be disruptive and share your conversation with everyone around you, but it’s also a risk to asking a stranger to put on headphones. And in general, the annoyance outweighs the risk.
“Some people might be able to get away with a friendly tone and smile, asking someone to lower their voice or put on headphones, but that’s not the norm and who’s to say the other person even has headphones to to use in the first place.
“The loud talker was incredibly rude, and the person who asked the other person to use headphones should ask themselves, is it worth the risk in this case? The woman felt embarrassed as her face turned red, so I would say it was so ‘T.”
Reddit users gave their thoughts on the situation in the comments section.
“You were spot on. It’s not rude to ask someone to follow social norms,” said u/Cruisingaltitude330.
Another, u/SaffronSimian, noted: “The erosion of social norms is largely due to the fact that people never enforce them, for fear of discomfort or confrontation. Yes, it takes some guts to do it, but just know that no matter what happens, every other person within earshot is happy with what you did.”
“You weren’t rude. Rude people (her) can’t dictate to others who or what is rude. She was probably just shocked and embarrassed at the time and took it out on you,” u/misterecho11 wrote.
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