A flight attendant reported the company's decision to delay restricting passengers to their seats to...

Narrative:

When landing today we had another issue with the new 10;000 foot double chime and turbulence. We are having more turbulence on descent and are preparing for landing while trying to protect ourselves. We couldn't ensure that things were properly stowed and turned off and be ready to sit down when the captain says 'flight attendants prepare for landing' at 10;000 with the amount of turbulence that we are experiencing on approach at many of our airports. Is this another change driven by customer complaints of not having electronics on below 18;000 feet? We have done electronics at 18;000 feet for the 10 years that I have been flying and never had an issue with it. At a few airports the 'seatbacks upright' at 18;000 feet can be a long time; but was the safest thing for our flight attendants and also allowed me to contact the cockpit between 18;000 and 10;000 with any last minute cabin write ups.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Flight Attendant reported the company's decision to delay restricting passengers to their seats to 10;000 FT during descent vice the previous 18;000 subjects flight attendants to hazards associated with low level turbulence.

Narrative: When landing today we had another issue with the new 10;000 foot double chime and turbulence. We are having more turbulence on descent and are preparing for landing while trying to protect ourselves. We couldn't ensure that things were properly stowed and turned off and be ready to sit down when the Captain says 'flight attendants prepare for landing' at 10;000 with the amount of turbulence that we are experiencing on approach at many of our airports. Is this another change driven by customer complaints of not having electronics on below 18;000 feet? We have done electronics at 18;000 feet for the 10 years that I have been flying and never had an issue with it. At a few airports the 'seatbacks upright' at 18;000 feet can be a long time; but was the safest thing for our flight attendants and also allowed me to contact the cockpit between 18;000 and 10;000 with any last minute cabin write ups.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	911304
Time
Date	201009
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.ARTCC
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A320
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Flight Attendant (On Duty)
Qualification	Flight Attendant Current
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

A flight attendant reported the company's decision to delay restricting passengers to their seats to 10;000 ft during descent vice the previous 18;000 subjects flight attendants to hazards associated with low level turbulence.