How To Use The AirPods With The Entertainment System On Flights

The headphone jack has been removed on several smartphones to make way for other components. On most occasions, this is not a problem as you can rely on Bluetooth to have a decent listening experience. But during flights, a pair of wireless headphones are totally useless, so your only choice is the wired options.

If you want to use your AirPods or AirPods Pro on the airplanes, for now, the best choice is, you guessed it, a dongle. While it will allow you to enjoy the inflight entertainment, the nuisance here is that the dongle needs to be continuously charged while it is in use.

Bluetooth transmitters are very common these days, so it might not be a problem trying to get one. There plenty of brands that offer them on Amazon and many of these products look so similar that you may suspect that they all come from the same factory. If you are willing to pay for something with a brand name, one of the best options is the AirFly from Twelve South.

Use A Bluetooth Adapter

When we tested three Bluetooth adapters, the AirFly or they call it the classic now, the AirFly Pro, and another offer from a company under the name Hagibis on Amazon. So if your flight is not too long, the three of them may work equally well for the AirPods.

Here are the steps you need to take to set up these adapters:

Step 1: Charge the Bluetooth adapter.

Step 2: Make sure that the adapter is off. Press and hold the main button so that it enters the pairing mode.

Step 3: Place the headphones you wish to connect near the adapter and pair them.

Step 4: Pay attention to the blinking lights on the adapter and the headphones until they change colors, their speed of blinking, or they may do both.

Step 5: After plugging in the adapter, check if the headphones work.

Step 6: In case the headphones do not work, long-press the button to turn it off and repeat the process from step 2.

This might sound like a long and cumbersome thing to do before every flight, but its success rate is high. We have tried pairing midflight when there were other Bluetooth around to interfere with the pairing. If you have trouble connecting the two devices, try turning off Bluetooth on your smartphone and some nearby devices so that the headphones will not try to pair to them instead of the new dongle.

There are some shortcomings, of course. The adapter from Hagibis we tested also has another button to switch between the transmit (TX), and the receive (RX) mode. So you will have to repeat these above steps for the second time.

The volume is another catch. If you use the dongle, it will be much lower than when you connect the AirPods directly to the device. According to Twelve South, the company behind AirPly, this problem arises from the latest updates of the AirPods. One of the solutions is to turn on the volume of the airplane seat, but that may not be enough for some people.

The last feature we would like to tell you about is the battery life. The Hagibis one is said to work for five hours; the classic AirFly has double that, and its Pro variant has 16 hours.

The extra budget you put on the AirFly Pro is definitely money well spent. You will have a longer battery life, and when you are in the car or an Airbnb rental, it can be a Bluetooth receiver. It charges via USB-C, which is another benefit. If you fly with someone and want to watch a movie with that person, the dongle allows you to connect two devices to it.

With all of the extra money and hassle of connection, another, more convenient option is to bring along a pair of wired headphones. That leads us to the second option.

Don't Even Try

Many airlines are offering a library of inflight entertainment via Wi-Fi systems that you can stream directly to your tablet, smartphone, or laptop without paying an extra dime. And the best part is, you do not need to buy and carry around a dongle.

If you are flying with one of these airlines and have no worry about the pace on the tray table or battery life, this is the handiest option you have.

Another decent choice is to bring along a pair of headphones with wired connections. Some airlines even offer free nearly disposable earbuds. Or they may charge a small amount of fee. They will definitely sound as amazing as your expensive pair of AirPods, but they work. After all, you are watching an airplane movie on an airplane screen; you cannot ask for excellent sound quality.

If you care very much about how the music sounds, invest in a decent pair of Bluetooth headphones with noise cancellation, offers like Bose Noise Cancelling 700 and Sony 1000x M3 headphones are all good options. The best part is, they both come equipped with 3.5mm headphone jacks and cables. If you go for one of these two, do not forget to bring the cable along with you when you board a flight.

The best solution we can think of is for airlines to build their Bluetooth pairing options. However, for now, we have to settle for one of these above measures for long haul flights.