I flew Delta over the weekend from West Palm Beach to San Francisco (VIA Atlanta) and wanted to make a few comments.

The good: The flight attendants were actually friendly. They offered a free snack pack from Atlanta to SFO and even a snack from Atlanta to PBI. Earphones were only $2 and there was entertainment, which makes a long flight go faster. Planes were clean, and leather seats and blankets were on each seat on the night flight from SFO to Atlanta.

On the negative: The flight attendants would not shut up on the Atlanta to SFO flight. It was a 4 1/2 hour flight, the entertainment system wasn't working and I tried to sleep. Every 35 minutes there was the announcements like; the captain has turned off the fasten seat belt sign, the captain has turned on the fasten seat belt sign, we will be coming around to offer you a snack--your choices are, etc. I would get close to falling asleep and there would be the loud announcement. At one point on the Atlanta SFO flight, one flight attendant thought that there were too many people stretching their legs so she called the pilot who said, I will be turning on the fasten seat belt sign for awhile. There was no turbulence.

I spoke to the pilot about the constant interruptions during the flight and a flight attendant said "We're required to do this by law."

My bottom line: I would avoid Delta on long International flights since they are required to make LOUD VERBAL announcements every time the fasten seat belt sign goes on and off and notify the captain if too many people are stretching their legs at one time. Once again, I need to complement British Airways on keeping all of their verbal announcements during the first and last hour of a recent nine hour flight.

Buy some noise-isolating headphones.

Hope Virgin America is good .... can't wait to give them a try for internal USA flights, and, hopefully they will add plenty of routes.

I saw Virgin America at the San Francisco airport over the weekend.

It sure would be nice if the flight attendants would talk individually to people who were out of their seats when the FSBS was turned on instead of constantly making a loud announcement.

On my last flight, the pilot announced that we were number three for take-off and this young lady got out of her seat to use the toilet.

My problem is much more often that the captain comes on the horn and no one can hear him.

"Ladies and gmmmnnn we're mlmoiern in sdljer a while but, welllfbnll, we dalkje fmklds ewrqui mmmmmnnnnnmmmm do not mmlkleoiujn. Werw dmowr more information llktsg ljrwm. Thank you."

lol, soccr -- I think they used to work for the subway system!

I find those announcements so annoying too! On a recent flight(can't remember to where -- maybe France), we were given little packets with earplugs, sleep mask, and the earphones for the movie. Earplugs are very handy for these occasions.

Can anyone tell me, is it just the U.S. airlines that are required to make loud verbal announcements everytime the fasten seat belt sign is turned on or off?

I have flown red-eyes on the following airlines:

American
Alaska
United
Cathay
British
LAN Chile
RegionalAir (BA subsidary out of Kenya, not sure if it still exists)
LOT Polish Airlines
Lufthansa
Japan Airlines

plus 1 or 2 I can't remember.....

Here is the procedure and that's true for ALL the airlines I flew. (unless there is some extraordinary circumstances)

1. We take off
2. At 10K feet the "bing" sound happens
3. The FAs get going.
4. The Galley slave starts the cooking procedure
5. The rest of the FAs start taking orders if they did not do it before take-off
6. The captain comes on and makes an announcement. Some are more chatty than others, but basically end up with the following statement: " Ladies and Gents, this will be the last announcement we will be making as we are sure many of you will try to sleep. Thank You for flying XX airline. We'll see you in the morning."
7. The FAs finish the dinner service and do the duty-free walk around.
8. Finally the purser will make the following announcement: "Ladies and Gents, we will now dim the lights. If you wish to read please use the personal light above you. If you wish to sleep please make sure you fasten your seatbelt, and make it visible so when the captain does turn on the seat belt sign on, we will have to check but it won't be necessary to wake you up if it's under your blanket, jacket, etc...., we will not be making any more announcements until just before landing. "
9. The lights get dimmed
10. Usually the next thing I remember happening is either somebody opens the window shade and the bright sunlight hits me right in between the eyes or I smell the coffee/breakfast smells.....


The ONLY time I was awaken by early morning announcement was when an elderly gent in economy had some sort of a medical emergency. It was AA flight to London. The purser apologized, but explained that she had no choice but to seek a doctor/nurse on the flight. It was serious enough that when we landed, we were instructed to stay in our seats until the paramadics/cops/customs folks got the older guy out first.

That's the only time I've EVER been awaken by any announcements on any red-eye flights.

I do about 10-15 red-eyes EVERY year.

YMMV.

At 10,000 feet, it is four bings, which means you can use electronic devices.

On my red-eye Delta flight, they announced in the middle of the night (around 3:00 in the morning) that the captain had turned on the fasten seat belt sign, and quite loudly, too. There wasn't much turbulence, though.

I found this old blog. Last week I was talking to a pilot for Delta and I asked him, "is it true that Delta turns on fasten seatbelt sign when the flight attendants take a break?" and he said, yes, it is true.

IMO, isn't it a little dangerous to have all of the flight attendants taking a break at the same time? Also, at 2:00 a.m., having the pilot say, I will be turning on the fasten seatbelt sign for awhile could be very annoying, especially if I had was able to fall asleep and now awake, realized I needed to use the toilet.

I just flew United from Maui to LAX. Fasten seatbelt sign was turned off when the plane reached cruising altitude or about 25 minutes after take-off. The foreign airlines turn it off at 10,000 feet (flights with BA, Luthansa, Emerates, Cyprus Airlines, EasyJet, Swiss, Phillipine Airways, and Air Pacific). The fasten seatbelt sign stayed off until 18 minutes before landing. The captain woke everyone up at 22 minutes before landing and flight attendants came by with coffee at that time. Great timing. There were no announcements during the flight once the plane reached the cruising altitude.

I flew Continental from Maui to LAX back in February, 2011. The fasten seatbelt sign was never turned off during the five hour flight.

You must have forgotten again to tip the pilots.

In my experience, passengers on Delta routinely ignore the seat belt sign and flight attendants routinely ignore passengers who are ignoring the signs.

And when I have asked an FA if it is OK to get up to use the lavatory while the sign is on, they have all said "Sure, go ahead."

I too have noticed a difference between Delta's incessant announcements hawking the duty free, etc. etc., and, say, Air France on the same route. The AF pilot did the initial hello/announcement and that was about it until time to land. Much more pleasant on a long haul.

Please note that this original post is from 2007. Not sure if a 5 year old complaint is still applicable or not.

suze - It's the OP who revives this thread. He has his reason to do so, and I see no issue with that.

<<rkkwan on Sep 17, 11 at 1:54am
You must have forgotten again to tip the pilots.>>

used to have elite status with them pretty much left

since they converted all their skymiles to "pesomiles"

2-3 X tougher to get an award also bag charges of

$200/flt for a family of 4 seem excessive...

They made 1 billion of of bag charges but have

priced themselves out of my market...

Fly out of ATL a lot but currently xport of last resort for me

A thread 4 years old on airlines-2007?Alot changes...
Wally-the only time FA's take breaks are the mandatory ones that the FAA requires on any flight over 7 hours plus which is usually an international flight. The pilot who told you that they turn the seat belt light on for the f/a break was pulling your leg.
As to the seatbelt sign announcements-there have been too many idiots that hit their pumpkin heads in the ceiling or get hurt and we have to make announcements to remind them constantly because they never seem to "get it" and to cover ouselves.
My favorite line when people( particularly seniors using canes and not able to stand) is when they ask if they can wait for the lav in turbulence:
"God does make it turbulent in the lavatories too!"

And this one is from one of my flying friends when people won't sit down for turbulance and we are trying to get into our harnesses on our seats:
"I just want to make sure that when we are in court in front of the judge for your medical emergency and the judge asks you if I asked you to seat down before you got hurt,you will answer,YES?" Always gets a great reaction!