BlissWorld

Sounds to me like CO has officially taken over.

Double chime indicating final approach (in addition to the 10k single chime) and preparation for landing have always been a C thing. To be fair though, CO usually doesn't double chime until it really is about 5-10 minutes away from landing.

scruffair

Others can chime in on their experiences, but, to be honest, I've often felt pressure from FA's to give them my drink, return traytable, etc. during their post-chime walkthrough. I feel they frequently give glares and eye-rolls if you don't give them your trash during that time. So much so, in fact, that on every flight when I see them doing the post-chime walkthrough, I make sure to turn my head toward the window so they don't bother me. This seems to work and then i give them my trash during the final preparation.

Has anyone else ever had it happen where the pilots forgot to make the final announcement? I remember a flight about 8 years ago into ORD where I could tell we were about 2 minutes away from landing as we were landing to the west and were already well past the lakefront. Many pax still had drinks and food on their tray-table. All of a sudden, an announcement from the flight deck said "flight attendants, please prepare for IMMEDIATE landing." The FA's looked at each other kind of frozen. Then they quickly took their jump-seats and just made an announcement over the PA telling everyone to put their tray tables up and bring seats to upright position immediately. i had to hold my drink in my lap and many others did as well. Interesting!

SFO 1K

Not to go too far off-track here, but in light of the previous post - I had a flight on US from BWI to CLT, a B762 just a couple months ago. Cabin was told to prepare for takeoff in 5 minutes while we held for a couple cargo heavies ahead to finish their departures. 3 FAs in the F galley chatting, having coffee and giving hugs to one another looking at personal items and having a grand old time. I was in the window seat on the right hand side in Row 2 and could see them clearly. The plane did a line up and wait, then started on its takeoff roll a couple minutes later. They all looked at each other and the blood left their faces. No one was ready. We rotated and they were still crawling to get to their seats. Any one of them could have tumbled right into someone during that departure. Not funny at all. Sometimes I think the FAs just don't hear the pilots or the bells they are so used to it.

goalie

had the "double ding, please turn off" announcement on all 4 flights yesterday (sfo-den/den-tpa/tpa-iad/iad-sfo)

KansasMike

Amen! Amen!

BOOMER339

I had a similar experience on all four of my flights yesterday (LGA-ORD-LGA-ORD-LGA). It would appear as though the change is already in effect. However, nothing was said by FAs to alert pax to the change.

freshairborne

DEN and LAS are two places where I'll do the seat belts sign on and the "FA prep for landing" sooner than normal if I suspect any kind of turbulence in the decent. I want people to be strapped in early for their own safety, and I want the FAs strapped in sooner than later. I don't do it to inconvenience anyone, I do it for the safety of my crew and passengers. Though rare, turbulence-related incidences happen and I'd rather be safe than sorry, and I'd rather have fully functional, ticked-off passengers than injured, ticked-off passengers. If a few of my passengers are put out (but uninjured) by safety procedures, I can live with their ignorance..

FAB

It's an FAA reg by virtue of Ops Specs, whereby the carrier modifies the FAR "template reg" to meet their own needs, and when approved, it becomes FAR. Time, altitude, or when the captain decides it need to be done. Remember that DEN is 13,000 feet below sterile cockpit, not 18,000 like many others and on top of that, things should probably be done sooner than normal because of the turbulence when decending into DEN, where I'd rather have things done sooner than other places.

Just trying to keep it as safe as I can for ya.

FAB

FriendlySkies

+1

I'd rather be in the seat a few minutes earlier, than break my neck like the lady on the CO flight..

jamesdenver

Agree. Please stop talking so much about nothing! Be brief, concise, and to the point regarding service and safety. I give my full attention and respect for that. Do the mileage points, bathroom rules and any offers and whatnot as quickly as possible and be done with it.

On one of my next regular DEN-ORD or DEN-Socal flights I'm going to time (with my iPhone stopwatch) how many minutes of the 2.5 hour flight is devoted to someone talking. I'd say at least 15. That's doesn't see like a lot but when it's a minute here, then two minutes 20 minutes later it's just a complete interruption - and makes it really impossible to truly "sit back and enjoy the flight."

I had a 6am DEN-ORD flight a few months back. Was half sleeping, WITH earplugs as I usually wear inflight. FAs made the "snack box" announcement. No problem. Then as they're walking down the aisle one loudly barks "Snack Box?" "Snack Box?" every other row. Understand it's early morning and people still want quiet time and possibly sleep. If one wanted a snack box they'd be ready for it!

Similarly - Why do you have to make an announcement that you'll be collecting trash, then loudly announce it while walking down the plane? Let people enjoy their book, entertainment or the view in peace. There's enough cabin noise among passengers as is.

(Landing isn't much better when the announcements start up again before the plane's even off the runway and don't stop til the jetway clunks over...)

Just a friendly rant. I appreciate the FAs and their duties - but please ease up on the mic.

Mrotenfan

That's because UA doesn't require FAs to get up at 18,000 ft.
To get out of jumpseat at 18,000 ft consistently is DUMB. There maybe turbulence, the plane maybe in an angle, pilots may require FAs to stay seated until they call, etc. Many factors to consider. Most FAs at UA get up at 18,000ft because the environment is usually safe to get up then.
Fun tidbits: Pilots occasionally forget to announce " prepare for landing", but they never forget the double dings. If you want to see FAs scramble at last minute like ants on a hot pan, just ask pilots to "forget" to announce prepare for landing. This new procedure actually kind of prevents last minute scrambling from happening.

I am with you on this one. Too much announcements on UA, especially on international flights. But I am afraid there is nothing FAs can do, you will have to bring this up to UA, tell them to come up with a smaller, shorter announcement book.

mahasamatman

Not true. Some FAs babble much longer than others. The difference can be astounding.

Mrotenfan

There are something on the announcement book that FAs are obligated to read. Again, bring this up to UA, tell them to shorten the announcements on the book. Can't discuss this anymore, out of topic.

JohnnyJet

I agree; I'll never forget my second-to-the-last flight as a FA....FRA-SFO. The Purser talked for a good 20 minutes telling people, unscripted, how to open the lav doors ("push where it says 'push") and talking about many of the "fabulous items on offer in duty free." That was then followed by the Aft-Purser making an announcement in United Economy describing, in detail, each meal down to the "salt and pepper, should you find yourself needing additional flavor for your gourmet entree." We were 2/3 of the way thru the beverage service in Economy before the announcements were done with many pax eyes asking the question "why?"

dliesse

To answer the one question: on a flight IAD-SFO in the 1970s, the FAs were still in the aisle and the movie was still running when we touched down (appropriately for a flight from Washington, the movie was the Watergate one with Robert Redford -- can't remember the name right now).

As a point of historical interest, back in the 1960s and 1970s the pilots on the 737 (and there were three of them -- UA was one of two airlines with a three-man cockpit on the 737, and yes, at the time they were all men) there were never any normal-operation announcements from the cockpit. The chimes were used for all signals to the cabin crew.

I agree with the comments about the post-landing pablum, but that's dictated by the Marketing wonks at WHQ. All hail the Marketing experts who know everything except what pisses off their customers! My personal problem with most cabin announcements is that they come right as something pertaining to my flight is starting on Channel 9.

I should add that in the good ol' days, the cabin crew were able to make announcements in the two cabins separately. I wish they still had that capability, or, if they do, that they would use it. When I'm in first class, there is absolutely no need for me to hear announcements about the snack boxes or the drinks that are available for purchase (or, on overseas flights, the movie that will be showing and when).

Pingtung

I completely understand the need for announcements prior to landing, but man do we miss out on so much that pertains to our own plane, especially on those international flights with multiple language announcements.