Originally Posted by
Baze
If you are one of the first bunch of people to board you will hear all of the announcements. If you are one of the last you will probably only hear 1 announcement. If they wait until everyone is aboard and then make the announcement, what's the point, most are already sitting down.
I dunno; I've taken plenty of flights where the announcements went on for at least 10-15 minutes after takeoff. Back in the days when we actually had a good chance of Channel 9, this was really annoying, as it meant missing out on the most interesting portion of the flight from an ATC perspective.
The worst are the people who keep the mike on but don't talk for long periods, like they're trying to remember what to say or something. "United security policy requests that you please use the bathrooms in your ticketed cabin ... ... ... ... Please do not remove your seatbelts until the captain has turned off the seat belt light ... ... ... ... because there can be turbulence at any time ... ... ... we request you wear your seatbelts at all time ... ... After we have completed our climb, we will be offering a beverage service ... ... beer, wine, and cocktails ... ... may be purchased in the main cabin ... ... please refer to your Hemispheres magazine ... ... for the selection ... ... of beverages on today's flight. ... ... ... ... We apologize in advance if your selection is not available. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Now, please sit back, and relax on our way to ... ... Paris ..." [Then after 15 more seconds of open mike, rinse & repeat in French.]
Originally Posted by
mahasamatman
More announcements does not equate to more information. It just means more babble. As the signal-to-noice ratio reaches zero, people tend to ignore all announcements. It's like The Boy Who Cried Wolf. I (and I'm sure others) stopped watching the safety videos when Smisek appeared - if there's something actually important there, I'll miss it. (Though I do always watch the live safety presentations out of respect to the FAs.)
Yes, the longer and more banal the announcements get, the more likely they are to be ignored.