American Airlines CEO Robert Isom says the most important thing for an airline is an on-time departure (also, ‘not spending a dollar more than they need to’ which presumably includes on cleaning planes). Personally I actually prioritize not sitting in filth for my flight even ahead of an exact on-time departure. Unfortunately there’s really not any U.S. airline I can choose that shares this value. And ideally they’d be in the business of doing both!
United is supposed to be going for premium, but.
@united Another filthy Polaris experience… And no wipes on board. pic.twitter.com/Zk5RLwzYLR
— Joe (@joebarti) February 9, 2025
Southwest is ostensibly pivoting to premium, selling seat assignments and extra legroom seats. Maybe start with this.
@SouthwestAir great job cleaning the seats between flights this is disgusting pic.twitter.com/1yd1Lhdd9P
— Eric VanDongen (@ervandongen) February 9, 2025
And the O.G. the D in D0 stands for Dirty:
Hey @AmericanAir , should probably clean your seats before a first class flight.
SMH. pic.twitter.com/jRTDiD3nEY
— Chaz Ronny Coleman (@ChazRonColeman) February 10, 2025
Every minute spent cleaning is a minute before being able to get into the air. Airlines frequently try to turn their planes as quickly as possible. Every minute on the ground is a minute the very expensive aircraft isn’t generating revenue. I’ll often see cleaners board planes while passengers are still getting off the previous flight, and they aren’t given enough time to finish. But there’s not enough cleaners, and not enough invested in thorough cleaning, even when planes are on the ground for hours.
Dirty planes, almost regardless of airline, may be the third most common social media complaint – behind damaged luggage and being required to gate check bags when there’s still space in the overhead bin. These complaints came up on my screen within minutes of each other. I did not go looking for posts about cleanliness, and are hardly the most significant examples, just a selection of current ones across three airlines.
Each passenger has a reasonable expectation, I think, that their seating area will be clean. And it’s up to the airline to deliver that while still departing on time. In fact, it’s such a basic expectation that I believe when the airline doesn’t provide this then they haven’t earned the fare. The customer should be refunded. Unfortunately, airlines take the view that they’re only obligated to offer transportation from one place to another.
American has even taken the extreme version of this position that passengers are only entitled to move between two destinations, and aren’t even entitled to seats. A customer who paid for a seat but didn’t get one, therefore, wasn’t entitled to a refund since they traveled.
This is one thing I miss about the COVID days – airlines actually made an effort to sanitize and keep the planes clean.
Looks like AA are copying their “joint business venture” aka transatlantic proce fixing cabal and their customers are “enjoying” the BA “cost cutting is in our dna” approach to cleanliness.
Cloth seats are NASTY. Twice I’ve sat next to pax who had “accidents”. No amount of cleaning gets that fecal matter or urine out of the foam/fabric and you know money hungrry airlines aren’t replacing them regularly
I’m in a wheelchair so I’m always first on/last off. The cleaning crew is always on before I deplane and all I see them doing is vacuuming obvious messes and arranging seat belts neatly on the seat. There’s often trash in the seat back pockets and I never see them taking it.
The more airlines move towards more extreme banking the worse this gets. Tight turns means less time and more staff needed each step of the way that are busy for an hour then idle through the rest of their shift. That’s obviously too costly and there’s perpetually “not enough staff” to clean, manage a jetbridge, work a gate, work a customer service desk, etc. One of these days an airline will finally challenge the worth of the extreme banking paradigm over its entire impact & cost of the operation and reset.
I appreciated when the airlines (and everyone) took a little better care of things for a brief moment. Nowadays, it’s still nice when the airlines hands out alcohol wipes, but if they don’t I still bring my own—various companies like Flygiene sell them individually wrapped, which is ideal for waste, but is helpful while traveling. In addition to surfaces around your seat area onboard, a quick clean of your phone is also important. Or not, you do you.
*not (ideal for waste), but then again, usually those of us who care about hygiene also tend to care about the environment (or, not; I merely presume others are special, think it’s all a ‘hoax,’ that ‘germs aren’t real’ because you can’t literally see them with the naked eye, or that we should drink ‘raw milk,’ because we have an ‘immune system’; and, also, who cares about pollution, they’ll say, that’s just ‘virtue signaling,’ after all, our ‘sky daddy’ told us the planet is ours forever and ever, so we have dominion!). So, I’ll use the wipes. Safe and healthy travels, everyone.
Airlines would need to either 1. Increase turn times 2. Settle for endless rolling daily delays 3. Contract for more cleaners (and even that impact would be limited). All would cost $$$$. And if you think airline management is going to put out more money into cleaning, particularly AA, then you might as well as hope for a 100% upgrade rate as an AA Gold elite.
Stay healthy and not obese and your immune system will protect you.
Remember back in the 90s when flight attendants at SWA, ValuJet/AirTran and even legacies like TWA made PAs like ” we need your help keeping on time and our fares low. Please hand any finished newspapers, snack rappers or magazines to your flight attendants as we prep the cabin for arrival. Also take a moment to wipe down your tray tables and arm rests.” AND PEOPLE LISTENED!!
Sure there were occasional peanuts ground into the carpets or crayon art work on the table but nothing like today.
Old man rant over
My beef about a “hidden” health risk: planes without individual air nozzles. I think after a global respiratory virus pandemic, many of us realize the importance of air circulation. I felt much more secure with the air nozzle pointed at my face than wearing a mask.
Last year I dropped a nice earring in the seat frame track. What I pulled out ( and around my earring ) was a nasty wad of sticky hair, dander, crumbs and detritus probably gathering since the plane went into service. I should have abandoned the earring. Kennels are cleaned to a higher standard.
@1990: Your assumptions about other peoples’ perceptions of the world are fascinating. This rather elitist attitude is why you guys lost to “Hitler” (and yes, they stopped calling him after he won). Don’t believe the propaganda, just because people don’t necessarily agree with your views on these things does not mean that they are ignorant of how things work.
It’s exactly the same as people on this side of the political spectrum who think that mask wearers are refugees from Special Ed and those who vote D are the progeny of Stalin. Maybe some are, but most aren’t.
@AngryFlier — Hope you enjoyed the bait. Nom, nom. Sure, most folks are rational, decent people–you seem like fine fellow, angry as it were. Though, if you want to ‘turn down the temperature,’ let’s not go straight to 1945. Maybe #47 will just bring back some manufacturing jobs from China. You know, add an extra ‘state’ to the flag–no biggie. So, was that ‘sane-washed’ enough for you?
It follows that “Every Minute Spent Handling Carry-Ons Is A Minute Lost In The Air” so PLEASE RESTORE FREE CHECKED BAGS INCLUDED IN ALL FARES.
All airlines have just become the Greyhounds of the air
I remember when people actually wore nice clothing on planes, now it’s pj’s.
Turnarounds are one thing, but beginning of day ops no excuses.
Maybe if the airlines started treating people like humans and not like “your damn lucky to even be on the plane, sit down, shut up and do not bother us”
TRIP REPORT: AA MCI-DFW-PHX and PHX-MCI
All trips were in J class. Seats clean and service was great including PBDs.
Admirals club in DFW not too busy. Sparkling wine and some food. AA has done a good job with the hot food selection. Nuts and snack basket as well as drinks on those flights.
Coming back, a 2 hour flight departing at 8:15pm, surprise surprise, a hot meal! I never thought there’d be one so I never thought to preorder. Service was again excellent including PDBs. After takeoff, beverage service and warm nuts. Meal was served, got my choice.
Looks like AA has started to step up the service in J. There’s no competition on the non-stop except SWA, glad to see AA taking the initiative.
I took trips on Greyhound busses when I was high school age and college age. Greyhound coach seats were much more spacious than airline coach seats today. The padding on the seats was relatively good, too. The longest trip was the return leg from the Raleigh, North Carolina area to the Buffalo, NY area when I was 17 and it was a solo trip (the way down had stopovers in Annapolis and Washington, DC). Most domestic airline coach travel would be challenged to meet the same seating comfort.