Originally Posted by porciuscato

I fly United quite a lot, but this one's new to me. Flying SIN->SFO, a flight attendant says to my son, who is seated and buckled in the seat behind me: "I need you to get up and close the overhead bin." My son, being courteous and compliant gets up and does it, even though he has nothing in the bin himself.

Later in the boarding process, the purser says on the intercom: "people, if we want to leave on time, you need to get up and close the overhead bins above you." (the flight departed more than 10 minutes early).

Where I come from, "I need you to...." is a brusque, bordering on rude, way to make a request. But that aside, since when did it become a passenger responsibility to close the overheads? What's next: "I need you to distribute meals to rows 1-5...."?