I’ll ask my F/As about this when I fly later this afternoon. I’ve personally never run into such a situation where this has become an issue on the aircraft. Kudos to FT for the dialogue!
That being said, it does seem a bit overdramatic stating United is violating any FAA rules with this. All operations manual inclusions, amendments, procedures, etc. have to be approved by the FAA prior to becoming “company policy.”
I would be hard pressed to think that the FAA would sign off on a company policy that directly violates any CFR as is being claimed upthread.