I fly on a lot of foriegn airlines and do mostly international travel -- but also take internal US flights on occassion, plus I must take US domestic flights to get to my international gateway city.

Most announcements I am used to hearing typically go "Ladies & Gentleman, in preperation for landing (or we are now on final approach) - please ensure your seatbelt is tightly fastened, seatback upright, tray table is up, TV units are secured and locked in the arm rest, window shades are up and please secure any cabin baggage you have used in flight for landing".

The last two seem to vary and obviously the TV units secured and locked in the arm rest applies to flights with personal passenger TV units. At this time they often go through and collect headsets and menus as well (note: unless menu is bound to a leather covering, I tend to take it and put it away in advance).

The above is not an exact wording and often announcements vary -- but the above is typical. Even US carriers that do not announce the window shades do go through the cabin and open them prior to arrival, especially if on an overnight flight -- about 15-20 minutes out, they go through and open them (sometimes they'll leave it to about 10 minutes for International First Class).

With window shades, many long-haul international flights cover many time zones, day/night blur together, and as an example, flying Eastbound Pacific (East is Beast), Trans-Polar in Summer, or Middle East (Dubai) to New York (depending on time of flight & season - 10+ hrs of a 14.5 hr flight in daylight), the night time is often very short and the FA's lower all window shades consistently, at least in premium cabins, to allow pax to sleep. When I walk back to economy to stretch, it's always interesting to see several window shades open, light blasting in, & people up and about -- while up front in J or F it's dark and quiet with most people asleep.

On non-US carriers, the announcement is often done in several languages, including English - typically the language of the carrier first, followed by any secondary regional languages, and then English. Usually the English is good, but sometimes can be difficult to understand with a heavy Asian or Dutch accent at times, but for Flight Deck announcements on Trans-Pac with Asian carriers, many times it'll be British (Australian/New Zealand/South African) accents, but at times it can be difficult to understand if the pilot/first officer is Asian, SE Asian such as Malay, or Arabic.

One area of debate I have seen before in other places - a couple of carriers keep interior lighting on for night landings, while the far majority will dim the cabin to match the darkness outside if a night landing. Sometimes "mood lighting" which varies in colours depending on time of day, which is supposed to help with jetlag/time adjustment, will be left on, other times it'll be off at landing.

Safety procedure differences can really vary once overseas. While straying slightly off the original topic, I feel some carriers like Qantas have a good pre-flight safety demo, others are average, some outright boring and/or of no useful info, some minimal, and others will go as far as demostrating the emegency lighting and will turn on the aisle lights and exit signs above exits during the demo. This is a good procedure, IMHO. If you've never seen the emergency floor lighting activated and exit signs illuminated, it's good to see it at least once - plus it gets the attention of passengers during the safety demo. ^

SDF_Traveler