smashr

Same for my UA922 on 12/26. Everything was disabled in all seats in the C cabin. Lights, power, IFE. The seat reclining controls were the only electro/mechanical thing that was working. This was not unique to my seat in any way.

Derek

FWIW, checked in for an intra European flight on LH at MUC today, and there were signs in the FC checkin area asking all pax to prepare to check all cabin baggage if flying to the US. No cabin baggage at all would be allowed, according to the checkin agent. (as an aside, LH lost our checked bag and are rerouting it to hopefully arrive before we leave Prague, which got me to thinking...)

StuckMic

I'm not understanding the reasoning behind making everybody remain seated the last hour. Seems assinine.....a terrorist would simply get up. He doesn't have to follow the rules. Pointless.

radioactive

I flew UA 901 (FRA-SFO) yesterday, and saw this sign at the airport. The sign said "Kindly request" but they were not enforcing this. Additionally, there was only the first airport security check, no secondary screening for the flights in the A terminal. Additionally, IFE was active (with maps), and there were no restrictions on movement or blankets during the flight.

During the last 2 minutes of the flight, the FA came on, announced "Mr. XXXX, I hope you're in a secure location since your seat is empty, we will be landing momentarily"

dgcpaphd

I agree that the analogy was not fair. In fact, the original comparison was a bit over the top, so to speak.

Not many folks know the meaning of red light/green light in connection with a Brazilian BBQ. You brought a chuckle, thanks.

Derek

That's (a little) reassuring. Thanks. And welcome to Flyertalk.

FoxFlyer

Flew United Express flight this morning from YVR-LAX.

Arrived at airport, where we were instructed NO CARRY-ON baggage... so after getting my carry-on into my checked bag, we headed to baggage security, where our boarding pass was scanned and then our baggage tag scanned.

Into another line, where our boarding pass was scanned again.

Then into the real security line, where even with at least 8 lanes open, it was a long wait (and this was at 5:30am)... after putting my book and Bose through the x-ray and walking through the metal detector, received a FULL pat down after passing through... (It was pretty through, lasting a few minutes -- if they charged me $100 bucks I would have thought it was a massage!)

On board, all was fine until about 1.5 hours into the flight, the FA announces the inane 1hr policy and the nothing in your laps... she also seemed to think this meant NOTHING in your HANDS, as she would not allow us to even read a book or a magazine. (Oh, no going to the lav either!) We were in F (1 C,D on an crj700), and I politely asked her why we couldn't have a book at least... She agreed the rules were a bit ridiculous, but that rules were rules. I told her I had done lots of research (on FT!), and suggested that it was really at the pilots discretion... She went back to her "rules" (looking at some print-out) and said that "ok, I found a loophole... as long as there is nothing obstructing my view..." you could read a book AND keep the blanket wrapped around our legs (but not above the waist) to remain warm (as it was really cold in Row 1 near the door).

It really is pretty ridiculous and have to say it made flying really a hassle. I love to fly (had 85k+ BIS miles in 2009), but if flying international or transborder is gonna be like this, I just may stay home...

dgcpaphd

Why didn't you politely ask her to tell the pilot that the rule about passengers remaining in the seat is up to the pilot? If the flight attendant complied and asked the pilot and he continued to insist that passengers must remain in their seats and refused to allow passengers use of the lavatory or reading material, you should write to United Airlines headquarters and complain about that specific pilot.

If the flight attendant refused to ask the pilot (via the intercom on the aircraft) you should write a complaint letter about the flight attendant.

Just as you wrote, with all the hassles of flying, you might just stay home if it continues.

That insensitive or misinformed pilot of your flight could cause United Airlines lost revenue and a lot of lost good will because of his callous treatment of passengers.

We should not loose sight of the fact that many of the new rules are abusing passengers to deflect attention from the real issue: Various government employees have not adequately done their job.

If we do not speak up, the senseless rules will continue or get worse.

yuenpo

just back on UA862 HKG-SFO. Check in is a breeze (completed within a min) in HKG, the agent remind us that there will be long security check at the gate and ask us to arrive the gate one hour before flight.

The flight parked at gate 49, the furthermost gate in HKG, with El Al's flight next to it. After gate agent scanned the boarding pass and walk into the jetbridge, we are directed to line up as: Men on left, ladies on right (if you know Chinese, you know what's the special of that) for the detailed luggage search and body check. The HKG airport security staff did it very orderly and quickly, with 7 to 8 tables available. There are a lot of female security staff to help with the body search for the female passengers. They did the search professionally and politely. (they say have a nice trip after all the search)

The flight map function is disabled. It's weird to see our plane landed SFO but the flight map still showing the plane in HKG. Other entertainment is running as normal.

We are not asked to sit down and fasten seatbelt until the plane doing the last turn around San Jose (5 min before landing)

Runnin' Gal

Flew CDG-IAD on 1/2 (United 915). Securrity at the X-ray machine included a full body pat down after passing through mag. The best part was that my carry-on bag included my make-up bag with mascara, chapstick, and liquid eyeliner in it. I've never included these in my separate quart bag in the U.S. but my bag was pulled aside and my makeup was removed, placed into a plastic ziplock bag, and then PUT BACK INTO the makeup bag. Wow, felt MUCH safer now.

The fun was just beginning. All U.S. bound passengers then line-up for gate screening. This took 5-7 minutes per person. Our purses were emptied, carry-ons unpacked, pill bottles opened, wallet opened and looked through, and another full body pat down. This process was so slow people were yelling at the screeners about missing their flights. Screeners ignored them. Some people brazenly started pushing their way to the front of the line. One poor guy had waited, gotten screened, and then got called by the GA for an upgrade. He had the leave the "secure" area to get his new boarding pass so had to go back through the line all over again.

At our exact scheduled departure time, the pilot announced that 85 people still needed to be screened so we would be pushing back late!! It was crazy. If this is the new state of TATL travel, forget it. It's not worth it.

Once airborne, everything was normal with full IFE and map until we crossed US border at which point map was turned off. At one hour, we had to stay in our seats but we could have things in our laps.

ironmanjt

One more datapoint:

1/3 LHR-IAD

All in-flight service normal, including flight map and no 1-hour requirement. No Channel 9, but hardly surprised.

Only 1 carry-on ex-LHR, size strictly enforced. Security on the gate checking each individual passenger and their carry-on.

kevincrumbs

1/2 876 NRT-SEA

There was an extra check right before we entered the plane, which consisted of security staff looking through bags and then patting you down after that was done. They opened up my bag, looked through it (definitely not thoroughly and didn't move anything in it around), patted it to feel for anything sharp and then asked me if I had any knives or box cutters. The personal pat down was very quick and then it was onto the plane. The whole process took under five minutes.

On board the plane, the map was on the whole time and the seat belt light came on about twenty to twenty-five minutes prior to arrival at SEA. When making his announcements at NRT, the captain alluded to security issues as being the reason as to why Channel 9 would not be on.

FWIW, I also flew 838 TPE - NRT on the same day and as expected, there was nothing different about this flight when compared to my experience on the same flight in late September.

starlanet

isn't it illegal?

Runnin' Gal

In the U.S., yes, probably, although there are reports of it happening over on the Travel Safety and Security Board. However, this was in Paris where U.S. laws and civil liberties do not apply. I do not know French law so I cannot comment as to whether any French laws were broken. It was an extremely invasive, somewhat embarrasing, search that took a very long time per passenger. Literally everything I had in my carry-on was laid out on a table for all fellow passengers to see. The lack of hygiene (dirty hands touching my medication, hair brush, etc), made me ill.

Mr. Mastodon Flyer

Same experience LHR-IAD on 1/3. I was really surprised the in-flight map was working and they didn't enforce any additional rules during descent and landing (I had assumed the one-small-carryon limit was so they could make us put all of them in the bins for the last hour).