Originally Posted by bocastephen
CO is already on the record stating these requirements and announcements are not within company guidelines and should be stopped. I doubt CO is not going to have an issue with any employee going outside company guideliness without a valid reason - and the valid reason has to be something that occurred during the operation in question, not just "I feel safer knowing the passengers are all being forced to remain seated whenever I fly to DCA".
A pilot in command must still answer on the ground for what he does in the air.
Maybe something did occur which is unknown to the rest of us and therefore they enforced this rule which is no longer policy. I've flown with very few captains who would enforce a rule such as this one if it's no longer policy. If the captain requested the flight attendants to enforce this rule, he may have very well had a good reason