Originally Posted by
CABNcrew
You are correct, sort of. If you notice, most airlines "secure/prepare the cabin" for landing at 10K feet.
CABNcrew, I'm not looking to argue, particularly with a professional, but I'd respectfully point out that some of what you're saying here doesn't apply to all airlines. On UA 10k on descent is the double-ding signaling that personal electronics should be turned off. I haven't had a UA flight yet in which "return seat backs to the upright and locked position, etc." was given at 10k. I'm not disputing your rationale. I'm simply pointing out that at least one major legacy carrier doesn't do this.
Same applies for takeoff. The cabin should be secure from door closure, until 10K feet as well, just like descent. . . . If you've put your seat back, pulled out your bags etc then the cabin isn't as ready as it could be...thus it's important to wait until 10K feet when you can rest assured that all is well!
And, again, I can only say that UA is different. I've specifically asked this question, i.e. when can I put my seat back?, to a number of FAs, lead FAs and pursers and the answer has always been the same: "Gee, no one ever asked us that. You can recline after wheels up." Which is what I do. If some busybody [edited by moderator] starts kicking my seat because he thinks I shouldn't recline, he's going to be introduced to some men and women in blue who will give him some nice silver bracelets when we land.
This may all sounds like a bit much but this is how your crew is trained to think. Sometimes it seems like we don't make sense but there's a reason for what we ask! I hope I provided SOME insight into things and if not then I tried.
I truly appreciate your explanation, and that is precisely why I made a point of asking a number of crew members on my regular carrier. For what it's worth, I don't take things out until we're at cruise and, even then, I rarely will leave them on the floor in front of me or on an empty seat next to me (yeah, like that happens any more) because of the possibility of unexpected turbulence. However, as for headphones, I always use non-powered headphones for takeoff and landing so that I can listen to Channel 9 on UA. No cabin crew on UA has ever objected and, of course, if the captain didn't want us listening to Channel 9 during takeoff and landing, he or she would simply turn it off.
With all that said, if I was flying on YOUR airline, I'd leave my seat up and not listen to my headphones, because I always follow the flight crew's instructions.
