Originally Posted by iluv2fly
It's been custom and practice on the flights I have taken that this particular announcement from the flight deck began the preparation process. The flight attendant usually gets on the intercom at that time and gives the pax the instructions for landing.
That's correct. Two exceptions come to mind:
1. Sometimes if turbulence is expected on descent, the pilots will tell us via interphone to prepare the cabin and be in our jumpseats a few minutes earlier than usual. They generally still make the announcement as usual though, since I think it is on their checklists to do at a certain point during the approach. However in this case I usually include this information in my announcement, that we are doing the checks a little early because turbulence is expected further down on the descent.
2. Sometimes it may seem like we are really getting close to landing but haven't yet heard the "prepare" announcement so we start it ourselves on the assumption that the pilots forgot to make it, which does happen from time to time. I know when I fly Purser, if it looks like the ground is getting pretty close, other F/As will start suggesting to me that we do the checks even though there has been no announcement if I haven't noticed.
Maybe one of those is applicable here. If they did the checks and then got in their jumseats and were strapped in for landing (instead of still walking around or cleaning up the galleyts) by the time the announcement came I would suspect #1. I have never known it to be done just to get it "out of the way."
I don't know about being "met at the gate" if you refuse to do it until the cockpit announcement, but remember the announcement is "F/As prepare for landing," not "passengers prepare for landing." One of the other posters said it best, it really is an inter-crew communication that you just happen to be able to hear.