There are a couple of options here for in-flight headphones, one that includes being at the mercy of screaming children. Hmmm.
I know you're at the gate. You left them at home because you wanted to get to the airport on time, only you were too busy listening to YouTube videos last night (they're still next to the pillow).
Quickly, you check a Hudson's but leave cause they're like suuuper stupid expensive.
That Best Buy kiosk is starting to look good. If I'm going to pay good money, I want good ones, the thinking goes. But wait, how much do the airlines sell them for?
Luckily, these days, half of the domestic U.S. airlines offer headphones to their customers at no cost. Back when we originally ran this article, it wasn't uncommon to pay $7 for a set onboard. (FWIW, there are cabin and route exceptions.)
If you are flying Frontier or Southwest, have a contingency plan in place since these airlines don't even stock them.
Though airline headphones will obviously be nowhere as awesome as the Panasonic's RPHJE120K earbuds, guess what? Amazon doesn't do same-hour deliveries to LAX.
So, take a look at the chart, and then venture over to the Best Buy Express kiosk. Think hard: Do you need a pair of crappy headphones for the gym?
| Airline | Headphone Cost |
|---|---|
| Alaska | $0 |
| American | $0 |
| Delta | $2 in domestic economy / $0 all other cabins and routes |
| Frontier | Does not offer or sell onboard headphones. |
| Hawaiian | $4 between Hawaii and U.S. West Coast / $0 for all other routes |
| JetBlue | $6 |
| Southwest | Does not offer or sell onboard headphones. |
| United | $0 |
All information was verified with the airline.
