A woman was left red-faced in an airport when she asked another passenger to use headphones instead of taking their phone call on loud speaker.
Shannon Black was traveling from Salt Lake City International Airport to Portland after seeing family for Thanksgiving when she had the awkward interaction in the airport's Sky Club lounge.
"The sound from other people's speakerphones is really distracting and this woman's volume was very loud," she told Newsweek. "I was nervous to ask her to use headphones but have read a lot of comments about this issue and most people wish they had said something, and there have been times previously when I did not and wished that I had, so I did."
In a Reddit post, which has received thousands of upvotes and hundreds of comments, Black explains that the other woman was on speakerphone with what sounded like a child and was sitting about 30 feet away.
A young woman sitting at the airport terminal while waiting for boarding. A young woman sitting at the airport terminal while waiting for boarding. Daniela Vazquez/Getty Images"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, then told me she thought it was incredibly rude of me to say that. I just shrugged and walked away. But she did either turn the volume down or use headphones because we can no longer hear! Success, I think? Was I rude?"
Black told Newsweek: "When she told me I was 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 air passenger numbers. The Transportation Security Administration revealed that December 1, 2024 was its busiest day on record as it screened 3.087 million individuals at airports nationwide.
Etiquette expert Diane Gottsman shed light on the interaction between the two passengers. She told Newsweek: "Most everyone would wish that loud talkers in an airport, airplane, or any other public space would be courteous and keep their volume low and use earbuds so no one else can hear their conversation.
"Asking someone to use their headphones is somewhat of a brazen move because you don't know how the other person is going to respond. It's not courteous to be disruptive and share your conversation with everyone around you, but it's also a risk to ask a stranger to put on their headphones. And the big picture, the annoyance outweighs the risk.
"Some people might be able to get away with a kind tone of voice and friendly smile, requesting for someone to lower their voice or put their headphones on, but that's not the norm and who is to say the other person even has headphones to use in the first place.
"The loud talker was incredibly rude, and the person requesting the other person to use headphones should ask themselves for the big picture, is it worth the risk in this case? The woman was embarrassed if her face turned red so I would say it wasn'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, commented: "The erosion of social norms is largely due to people never enforcing them, for fear of discomfort of confrontation. Yeah, it takes some moxie to do it, but just know that whatever happens, every other person in earshot is glad for what you did."
"You were not rude. Rude people (her) don't get to dictate to others who or what is rude. She was probably just shocked and embarrassed in the moment and took it out on you," u/misterecho11wrote.
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