Delta stopped passing through the coach cabin offering complimentary earbuds on May 15. This includes the extra legroom ‘Comfort+’ section. They still proactively pass them out in premium cabins.
They don’t tell you this, but the earbuds are still available on request. The goal is cost savings, and conservation of earbuds. They want to pass out fewer, because the cost has gone up. They’re made in China, and the airline attributes it to ‘supply chain’ issues (tariffs).
An internal airline memo suggests the change is temporary but that remains to be seen.
Flight attendants have been instructed to discontinue the practice of walking the aisle and offering earbuds during boarding. Additionally, the customary audio announcement that previously informed passengers of the availability of earbuds will be removed entirely.
There’s a lot of earbud waste. When they’re passed out, customers take them but do not use them. They leave them behind in seat back pockets, stick them in their bags and lose them, or just throw them away. Offering them on request may make sense, but ideally with an announcement that they are available which customers largely wouldn’t know unless they’re regular Delta flyers – customers more likely to have brought their own earbuds in the first place.
Delta’s decision to stop telling customers they’re available is the real downgrade, rather than not proactively passing them out.
The people most likely to know the earbuds are still there, and to request them, are probably the people who sell them on eBay. Oddly you’ll see them sold from $3 to as much as $25. Grab a bunch, and your flight nets out to free! What’s more there’s all sorts of different packaging over time, making them collectors editions (like the Delta 100th anniversary edition).
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