I've been on "old" US Airways flights the past few weeks and they have not collected anything before takeoff. Only one has given us his name (and he was the best FA I've encountered on US and this was during a major delay due to a captain swap and weather delay). In fact during my last flight home from PIT they almost didn't even collect everything before landing. I've seen them not do it and have cups go flying when the brakes are hit. Really odd.

On the "flight deck is at the front of the plane", I always thought they said "Due to Security Regulations, we are required...." which could be interpretted to be HP's Security or any security really. I always thought it was pretty dumb but some people still stand up before the seatbelt sign is off if the plane stops short of the gate so I guess you have to do some handholding.

Lance