Starting tomorrow (May 17), American Airlines will stop on-board announcements of connecting gate information as flights prepare to land. This has long been a nuisance for some travelers who are hoping to watch the end of a TV show, read to the end of the chapter, or get a few more minutes of sleep.
Recognizing that most passengers travel with phones that are connected to up to the minute gate updates, and because on newer American Airlines aircraft, gate information is readily available on the seat back screens, American Airlines has decided to discontinue this sometimes useful, but sometimes annoying practice.
Delta Air Lines and United Airlines ended these announcements years ago, while Southwest Airlines has said that they leave this up to the individual flight attendants’ discretion.
How do you feel about the end of on-board gate announcements?
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4 comments
So happy not to hear it anymore….it is annoying!
Glad to see this end.
Now to get the FA’s to limit their other announcements and get the pilots to stop playing tour guide and meteorologist then we could finally have a peaceful cabin to get work finished!
I hate to see these go completely. They still serve a purpose but mostly on short haul routes that are inbound to AA hubs. Many of these are on smaller or older planes with no IFE or even wifi at times.
Fine by me. Over the years I have taken more and more non-stops. When I did connect, probably half the time, the gate info they read was wrong since there was a gate change anyway which made the announcement useless. Now as the article said, with smartphones, you are a few taps from the info you need. The 2 minute rambling of often wrong gate info can be stopped.