I'm onboard a delayed A330 flight out of Amsterdam right now that's stuck at the gate due to what was billed as an MEL paperwork issue but has seemingly turned into an actual maintenance issue.

While being bored onboard a delayed aircraft is a good enough reason to start a thread, I have a legitimate question: I just heard an odd chime I'd never heard before. It consisted of three tones; high, medium, and then low.

Are the different onboard chimes standardized? If so, does anyone have any idea what the variations are and what they mean?

it's always useful to know the 10000 feet chime so you can shut down electronics before the F/A makes their announcement, so I'm curious what other interesting data you can learn from these tones.

I did some research on this (including on this very site,) and found that it's a feature found only on the Airbus A330. It seems from what I've found, is that it's a "purser call," i.e.; its used to announce intention to speak to the lead FA, but that may vary from carrier to carrier.