Having lost my hearing on the left ear, Airpods have not really been a suitable option … but when iOS 12 comes out with support for Live Listen, it could be a tremendous help.
So my idea would to team up with a person in a similar situation and divide two sets of Airpods giving me two right Airpods, and thus a spare.
Questions: Is it possible to pair individual Airpods to an iPhone/iPad/ATV? What about the case - can it some way accommodate two right-side Airpods for charging and storage?
Hey fellow deaf ear person! I’m deaf in my right ear. That said you can setup your iPhone and AirPods for mono listening in your disability & accessibility settings. That said I looked into Live Listen and it seems like a great feature.
I frequently use just one AirPod and it simply adapts to mono use, so that aspect of your idea is ok. The shape would prevent storing both rights in one case, however.
How the case would deal with taking control of the spare I don’t know, though and as I understand it, it’s the case that initiates pairing to a new device, not the AirPod.
I recently had a conference call on FaceTime with colleagues, and my friend in the room was able to join the call by my giving him the other AirPod so we didn’t have to rely on the iPhones built-in speaker to hear the other callers accurately. He remarked that he was sure to buy a pair of them soon after the experience!
Yes, I share with my wife when we want to listen together to a phone or iPad.
I haven’t regretted getting them, they’re so handy to take out my picket and use whether I’m on my phone, iPad or computer.
Thanks all for the feedback. 
It seems I should try to pursue this route…
@DalleJensen I just joined the group and just saw your post. Last week I had an issue with my left air pod and went to the Apple store for service. From watching the genius work, I can confirm @GraemeS’s comment that the case handles pairing with the individual pods. The tech replaced both my case and the left Pod, he simply took the new case out of the box and dropped in an old Right and a new Left pod. That said, I spent a lot of time waiting for devices to charge to verify that things functioned. Part of the process they follow at the store is to put the new pod in the case and wait 10 minutes for the device to charge (and I assume pair with the case). For me, the process took 20 minutes before I had a working setup again.
I think its a great idea to split the AirPod set with someone in a similar situation, just opposite ear. Just don’t be concerned if the 2nd AirPod takes a while to charge before it starts working.