Hot towels are sort of like washing your hands before the meal, but without soap? You’ll find the practice in some restaurants and in airline premium cabins, although I miss the days when airlines handed out sanitary wipes because those actually kill germs.
Some Asian and Middle Eatern restaurants will do this. It’s especially common in Japanese dining, where it’s known as oshibori, part of cleanliness and hospitality. Wiping hands before eating aligns with Japan’s emphasis on hygiene and respect for food preparation. Offering an oshibori reflects omotenashi, selfless hospitality, to make guests feel welcomed and comfortable. And it can be comforting, setting the tone for the meal. Airlines do it for comfort and luxury.
Here’s an American Airlines first class passenger with their own idea about what the purpose of a hot towel is. Normally passengers get one. This passenger asked for two and went to town with them.
- They put the hot towels on their bare feet
- They propped their feet up on the bulkhead
This is a whole new way for a first class passenger to show they’re really a no class passenger.
Apparently I’ve Been Doing It Wrong
byu/pdxcanuck inamericanairlines
As perhaps the saddest commentary on life, there are people who would pay good money to use that towel afterwards.
Fortunately flight attendants aren’t expected to pick up warm towels from passengers with their bare hands after use. On some airlines they use tongs, on others gloves, but I wouldn’t wish this pickup on them even then.
Trash.
Whatever happened to “No shirt, no shoes, no service?” If you want to take off your shoes, put on the socks the airlines give you in an amenity kit.
The airlines should put this into their otherwise impenetrable “Conditions of Carriage” – and enforce it.
Ppl are trash plain and simple
I miss the sanitary wipes. Delta should go back to that. Pay for them with the money they save by not paying royalties on the horrible music they play during boarding and after landing.
When did Ed start flying American?
If I get a hot towel on an Asian airline I first use it to wipe my face and then my hands and lower arms. I am pretty sure such towels sometimes get used on worse things than peoples feet. The towels would go to a commercial laundry for cleaning. I have been inside of some of those. They typically use very hot water on white cloth, whether it be sheets or towels or whatever.
Glad I’m near the end of my career and traveling days. Several decades and >4.5 MM butt-in-seat on various airlines and I now dread flying. Used to love it. No more. Uncouth, clueless pax that think everything revolves around their own little world. What’s next? On board enemas?
I would ask them if they were Romulus or Remus.