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How to use Oticon OPNs with airplane inflight entertainment?

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Does anyone know how to do this? Each time I fly somewhere, I worry about taking off these expensive devices, and stowing them away, while I plug the little airplane provided earplugs into the inflight entertainment console on the back of the seat in front of me. Then, often it is ver hard to hear the movie sound anyway, because of the airplane sound.

Has anyone solved this problem?

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In reply to @aggie60

Thanks, I asked the Diabilites customer service person at Delta (whom I fly often) and she said that the inflight app that works on my iPhone with Oticon OPNs will play the sound and the movie on my phone and I can watch it on the airplane console at the same time.

Or try noise cancelling headphones over my Oticons and plug them into the plane jack outlet…

About 16 years a go I was traveling a lot and my wife got me the bose quiet 25 over the ear headphones and I have worn them out and got a new set from bose a couple years ago. I love them

Many thanks, will try them! Hoping they go over the Oticon type with the little kidney shaped device behind my ear? So I don’t have to remove the HAs and worry about dropping them and/or losing them.

I believe when you put your ’s and iPhone in Airplane mode, then Bluetooth is disabled.

I will ask the folks at Oticon about this…I know that my audiobooks are great on long flights, and play right into my ear with from my iPhone. The disabilities person at Delta said that there was no way to use bluetooth to access the sound from the screen, and that I might be able to watch on the console, and use the inflight entertainment app on my iPhone for the sound. She also suggested using headphones over my hearing aids.

I think there is a way you CAN do it, and then the way that is legal to do it. To my thinking the best legal way is to use over the ear headphones.

When you place your phone into to flight mode it will automatically turn off wifi and Bluetooth. After this you can turn the Bluetooth back on but still leave the phone in flight mode.
This is permitted as the Bluetooth is a much lower emitter than the phone.
You phone will still display the in-flight icon but will also show that Bluetooth is active. This is a permitted configuration.

Listening to in flight entertainment with standard headphones is just another way to increase your heating loss because of the level that you have to turn the volume up to. Ie to overcome the environmental noise of the aircraft.

Highly recommend the Bose. They work well over my oticons. Dependant on your level of hearing loss you can try muting the aids or turning them down a bit prior to putting the headphones on as this will reduce the amount of initial feedback prior to the oticons auto adjusting.

Thank you!! I did not understand that airplane mode turns off the blue tooth. I do know how to turn the bluetooth setting back on just for the Oticons. iAll of you have helped enormously. I will use my trusty Oticons and the Bose headphones. Many thanks for help and education.

I have a pair of the Bose noise cancelling headphones and they are not comfortable for long periods with my behind the ear hearing aids. I would suggest looking at over the ear headphones. I find that the ambient noise on the plane overwhelms the level of streamed audio to my hearing aids. If you want to go cheap, try a pair of noice reducing ear muffs over your hearing aids. I have some Howard Leight Clarity C3’s which cost about $20.

I tried a few different combinations for use in an airplane. I found the best was the off switch on the ’s while leaving them in my ears. It was quite quiet compared to any of the programs on the HA. When I needed to talk to anyone I would just turn them back on again.

I use noise cancelling headphones over my OPN 1 minirites (with open domes). I leave the aids turned on.

My headphones are Sony 1000XM3. I recommend them. They have Bluetooth and also a wire and adapter for plugging into the plane.

Perfect!!! I bought those exact ones last night after reading the Wirecutter (NYT tech guys whom I trust and love) who said that the usually excellent Bose ones have something called “ear suck”, and that the Sony model you mention has the same great plane noise cancelling function, and better sound than the Bose, and no “ear suck”.

I also have exactly the same OPN 1 minirites (with open domes). Do you listen to audiobooks on a flight with the headphones? I think that as someone on this forum said, maybe I have to put the iPhone in airplane mode, and then re-turn on the Bluetooth on the phone and listen to the audio books via the Oticons with the Sony headphones just cancelling the airplane noise?

I listen to music when flying, not audio books. I send the music to the headphones because of better sound quality (mainly bass sounds). I keep the hearing aids turned on to hear high frequencies better (my hearing loss is mostly in high frequencies).

In the past, I used the wire to connect the headphones to my Android, because I thought Bluetooth was not allowed on planes. But actually, Bluetooth is ok on most or all airlines in the US. I am flying United tomorrow and will use the Sonys in Bluetooth mode.

As you said, that means putting the phone in airplane mode, then turning on Bluetooth.

In reply to @darylm

I unpacked the bluetooth transmitter today. It’s smaller than I expected, basically the same size as a connectclip. It was easy to pair with the connectclip and it seems to work well, especially considering the price. I found that muting the to allow only streaming audio seems to work better than having the background audio enabled. I was wondering if there would be noticeable lag, considering there are two bluetooth links, but lag is not perceptible. It will be interesting to see how well this setup works in the noisy airliner environment.

I have a small carrying case left over from my original Oticon Alta Hearing aids. Whenever I take my OPN1s out, for any reason, I put them in the case for safekeeping. For traveling, I bought some relatively inexpensive Sony headphones that fit over the ear. They came with a round black case that fits neatly in one of my backpack pockets. If I’m wearing the headset, I put the aids in there until we near our destination. (I only use Bluetooth with my iPhone. I use headphone to listen anything on my iPad or inflight entertainment.)

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