Baze

The OP was referring to pre-departure announcements, at least in their first paragraph, and I doubt those would continue after take off.

mahasamatman

Many of the pre-departure announcements are repeated after takeoff.

I'll bet their lawyers said they had to. It's all about CYA.

I propose a new "law": Verbosity is proportional to the number of lawyers in a country.

Baze

I must tune a lot of them out. I only seem to remember the ones that say stow your stuff and get out of the aisle being repeated numerous times as people are boarding. That's what I thought the OP was referring to. The ones during taxi and take off and inflight seem to only be said once (maybe repeated on international in another language) and I don't count seatbelts announcements as you can never tell how many times those will be said, depends on conditions. So maybe I am misunderstanding the OP's post. And the mods changed the title to include inflight, not the OP's original title.

manhattan92

My point was that there are too many announcements in general, especially pre-departure. I forgot to mention the Smisek video which presents its own hard to bear issues of self-praise and aggrandizement especially when you are traveling on a 20-year old aircraft with no wifi that has been delayed for 2 hours for mechanical reasons.

I would just be thankful for a few necessary announcements and a more tranquil cabin both before and after takeoff. Some here seem to tolerate the multiple announcements better than I do.

demkr

I hear more announcements on United than any other airline domestically. They really do not stop talking.

Not to mention the DTV announcements. Even the boarding announcements could use some condensing.

mjcewl1284

While the inflight announcements on UA seem to drone on and on, take a flight on BR or CX. Each announcement made is translated into Mandarin and then into their respective dialects. For a native speaker of Mandarin and their respective dialects like myself, it means I have to listen to the same line repeated 3 times. For me, UA announcements are a cakewalk.

JC5280

Completely agree! Lots of fluff. Especially when its translated in to another language. Lets start a list:

1. "We do ask"...
2. "At this time, we ask you to"...
3. "At this time, we have begun our final descent"... (theres only one descent)
4. Please switch your personal devices, such as smartphones, ereaders, tablets... (remember when they used to say "blackberries, blueberries, and whatever berry you might have...?)

I havent found this unique to UA though. Heard it on other carriers. Have you ever heard the announcements in ORD?

"If you are planning to travel with liquids, remember 3-1-1..." Ummmmm, I am beyond the checkpoint. Anything I am planning to travel with, I am traveling with now.

hirohito888

Haha very true, BR and CX having to distinguish themselves by "going local". Same goes for most Asian airlines bound for Mainland China, you get English, Mandarin, and Thai/Bahasa/Vietnamese/Korean/Japanese (depending on carrier).

czhang

At least you're not on AC to HKG with announcements in English, French, Cantonese, and Mandarin!

TennisNoob

That's not bad at all. If you've been on Air China you would realize that they make the wrong annoucement in English and end up making an follow-up announcement to say what they actually meant to say. (without saying they screwed up)

After the flight attendants called preparation for landing 1 hour before landing, they made 6 announcements telling people to not get out of there seat. Including the "do not take your baby to the galley", even AFTER the pilot announced flight attendants please be seated for arrival.

Mats

I find no value in the "Please step in to your row" repeated announcements during boarding. I don't think anyone listens, but I know that the crew has to read it right out of the book. Although it's sound advice to tell passengers to hold on to their coats and place them in bins on top of suitcases, nobody pays attention.

I also think it's crazy to announce the option to purchase Economy Plus seats when the flight is full anyway.

The airlines all do it, but I get annoyed because hear the same message so many times. "We'd like to extend a special welcome to our MileagePlus members..." United is not alone by referring to itself as a "founding member of the Star Alliance," it makes them sound like they were on the Mayflower.

United has at least piped down about its "security policy." I still here some s-UA crews talk about "United's new enhanced security regulations," but most stick to the quicker version in the standard script.

The DirectTV ads will go away as DirectTV goes away, but how many times to I have to hear, "I love having a free checked bag?"

As others have mentioned here, the best flight deck crew just say, "Seatbelts, please" instead of a lengthy announcement from the cabin crew or a blaring automated "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!"

But the most annoying to me isn't from United. It's the government-mandated "The TSA has limited items that may be carried past a security checkpoint." Why on earth is that announcement made in sterile areas of the airport? If you're already there, you either snuck the forbidden item past the TSA, or you bought it in the sterile area of the terminal. So there is no point to have a repeated announcement.

lhrsfo

Completely agree on both these points.

The automated announcements are particularly annoying - they're louder and more intrusive and still manage to mangle the language.

As for all the ridiculous canned announcements at airports - they just make people tune out to all announcements, whether they are important or not.

halls120

I don't mind the pre-departure announcements at all - it's the never ending stream after takeoff that becomes tiresome.

UAPremierGuy

Totally agree with the OP. As a primarily AA flyer, the difference between the announcements (not to mention a whole lot else) on AA versus UA is very noticeable. On AA aircraft equipped with televisions, the announcements are done via video, and FA announcements are kept to a minimum. The announcements are very classy, professional, and well-produced...unlike on UA, where the FA's are often yelling at passengers barely awake at 6AM. Combined with AA's boarding music and pleasant scenery interspersed on the overhead screens...the boarding experience is way calmer on AA...and yet, still, somehow, AA boards a 737 in <30 minutes, unlike the 35 minutes allotted on UA.

And, don't even get me started on UA's endless stream of commercials post takeoff. UA is truly a classless airline and far from premium.

will2288

I understand the need for announcements about seatbelts, overheads, aisles, meals, flight info, etc.

Any announcement for duty free or credit cards is what gets me.