With everything else going on with our boarding, I forgot to ask on SFO-HKG-SIN and SIN-HKG-ORD, and am sorry I didn't. I tend to be pretty passive. Its been about 2 years since I have heard Channel 9 on any of my flights.

Any news if the 787's will ever be retrofitted with it?

Here's the worst excuse I've ever heard for not having Ch. 9 on.

03July UA 896 SIN-HKG 6am departure. Asked flight attendant if they would talk to the flight deck and request Ch. 9. Different F.A. (lead I believe) came back about 20 minutes later and said, "The pilot declined the request because Ch. 9 is not available on all aircraft so he doesn't want to turn it on for this flight." WHAAAAAAAAAAAT? I did one of these: :rolleyes:

03July UA 862 HKG-SFO 1115am departure. Asked flight attendant if they would talk to the flight deck and request Ch. 9. Same F.A. came back and said she requested it but that there's a check pilot on the flight and he's unlikely to allow it. WHAAAAAAAAAT? What the heck does a check pilot on the flight have anything to do with Ch. 9? Do these people who fly the planes (commonly referred to as pilots) not know that Ch. 9 is what they transmit to ATC which is public record anyway? I swear some of them believe that banter in the cockpit itself will transmit on Ch. 9.

So two Ch. 9 eligible flights and not one of them on yesterday. My return to SIN later this week is on the crappy 787 so not even an option for Ch. 9.

-RM

Rob, your second situation I can understand. The output to the cabin when "Channel 9" is enabled is the #1 VHF radio on the jumpseater's mixing console (Captain's side). That console can also listen in on other radios, such as when tuned to maintenance, intercom, etc. In normal operations, when Channel 9 is enabled, it is set only to the primary ATC frequency. But if a check-ride captain is on, he'll want to listen to all of the radios/frequencies, including those that are not make available when we passengers are listening in via Channel 9.

^ Cool. Thanks for the explanation. I wasn't aware of that. But the first one is the one I scratch my head at.

-RM

UA851 ORD-PEK May 30, 2017 on a 772, my wife asked a flight attendant to ask the captain if he/she could put Channel 9 on. Two hours later, the flight attendant came back to tell my wife that she forgot to ask the captain.

UA850 PEK-ORD June 11, 2017 on a 772, before departure my wife asked a flight attendant to ask the captain if he/she could put Channel 9 on. The flight attendant said that my wife should go ask herself and announced loudly that a visitor is coming close to the cockpit. So, my wife got to ask it personally. The captain said yes but did mention that over the Pacific there would not be too much communications (like my wife did not know that!) so she got to enjoy it at departure from PEK and arrival to ORD. The funny part was that there was some delay from PEK and the captain from another United flight got irritated by it and questioned the need for the delay stating that the handling agent said that there was no bad weather. For our flight, the tower mentioned bad weather.

Sounds like they read the UA customer service manual before replying....ignore the sun, it's really just bad weather.

I've had much better luck asking the actual flight crew for channel 9. Since I board early I usually have plenty of time to ask a FA to ask the flight crew if its OK to go for a cockpit tour. I've had much better success asking on board after saying I'm a 20+ year UA flyer than the FA asking.

Did you ask? I find that about 2/3 the time I ask during boarding (usually ask the purser to ask the captain), it's turned on. The other 1/3 I hear a myriad of #FakeReasons such as:

• It's been removed from all UA aircraft
• We aren't allowed to do it anymore
• It's broken

But I seem to have had better luck this year than last.

I need to start. I miss those days when the A319s/A320s along with the 733/735s had it and it was on about 75% of the time!

As someone who doesn't sit in the front of the plane and doesn't necessarily get a chance to ask the captain for Ch 9, is it ok to accost the captain at the gate before the flight to ask if they'd be willing to turn channel 9 on during the flight? There are a lot of flight attendants that don't even know what it is (made even more complicated by the fact that it's no long actually channel 9 on 77W).

The worst they can say is no. Yes, many FAs don't know what it is, especially on the 77Ws and other planes (co777, 764) it was actually added to. I had a bulkhead on the 77W and noticed the remote control in the armrest switched to ch9 when I turned on From the Flightdeck on the touchscreen.

Absolutely!

If you don't see the Captain prior to boarding, don't be afraid to ask the F/A to forward your request either before or in flight.

Where do I find Channel 9 on 77W? I didn't see it in the "Audio" section on the screen, maybe I was looking in the wrong place?

Select AUDIO. The last item in the drop-down menu is FROM THE FLIGHT DECK. Select this. Then on the next screen, select LISTEN. If "Channel 9" is enabled by the Captain, it can then be heard. If not, you'll hear nothing.

As always, it's best to ask the Purser to ask the Captain during boarding. My experience is that on about half of enabled aircraft, it is put on by such a request. I've had especially good luck on pmUA 757 p.s. aircraft BOS<>SFO.