Originally Posted by
BWBriscoe
Is there a seatbelt policy or is it up to individual flight crew? Is there a difference between long and short haul?
There doesn't appear to be any flat rule...sometimes it goes off minutes after takeoff, other times it's 15 minutes after takeoff. On descent they can sometimes come on 20 minutes out, other times 10 minutes out.
Obviously it's weather dependent, but I have seen signs go off after a long time or come on early when there doesn't appear to be any bad weather.
One of the reasons on ascent is the climb out of Heathrow can often take a long time depending what needs to be done to avoid the incoming traffic. You may notice you sometimes level off for a while then climb again. This will affect when thevseat belt sign can go off.