I finally picked up my new Inflight Handbo...I mean er the United Flight Attendant Operations Manual and had my first look through it.

All in all, they did a fairly good job with the organization.  The typesetting and layout are excellent, in fact.  As is the more professional design and title.

There are a couple of weird things I noticed:

1.)  Why are the PA Announcements in both the Purser section, as well as in the  separate Announcement booklet?  No need to waste space duplicating.  Better to just have it in one convenient booklet.  Lastly, why is the table of contents buried on page 2 of the Announcement booklet?

2.)  The manual's front sections are confusing; Administration, Communication & Reporting, etc...  Maybe they may make sense to UAL Corporation, but to F/As (at least to me) they are too vague.  'Administration' means what?  Oxygen?  WHQ Staffing Flowchart?  Domicile phone list?

3.)  'Standards and Policies' is vague.  In fact, naming a single chapter 'standards and policies' is a bit silly since the entire manual is essentially UAL standards and policies.  Better to have two separate sections instead; one devoted to dealing with passenger procedures and phase of flight, and the other to dealing with employee procedures---both on and off the plane.

4.)  What is 'Communication and Reporting'?  Dialing Instructions for the Verizon AirFone?  Instead, how about having two different sections; Scheduling and Operations, containing all the info regarding scheduling, irregular ops support (besides simply plastering the annoying FLT-LINE number everywhere), important Unimatic command information, contact numbers, domicile and medical directions/times, etc...  And then another section for all the various forms, reports, etc...

Final note:  When are they going to use some consistency for 'passenger' vs. 'customer'?  Throughout the manual, they refer to passengers as 'customers', even in the announcements booklet.  Except in the Emergency Procedures section, where they simply call them 'passengers'.

In a gas station mini-mart, they're 'customers'.  In a speeding vessel 30,000 feet up in the sky, they're passengers.  Enough with the 'customers' already!