Tag Archives for lavatory.
Crazy stat: “If every passenger remembered to go to the bathroom before boarding” airlines would save $100 million a year on jet fuel from reduced weight.
A passenger on board the 24 year old Embraer 145 regional jet (registration N653AE) operated by American’s wholly-owned regional carrier Piedmont had to use the lavatory prior to departure. But this wasn’t just any bathroom visit.
Passengers had been told after takeoff that “they would not be permitted to leave their seats” for the entire flight due to weather-related turbulence expected for the full flight. Cabin crew would not be getting up, either – and “that includes to unlock the bathroom doors.”
They want to cram in as many passengers as possible. Every inch that’s used for something else – like lavatories and gallies – is seen as money left on the table.
On Thursday, American Airlines flight 835 from Tampa to Philadelphia went out without working water. According to a passenger on the flight, a gate agent announced that everyone should use the airport restrooms prior to boarding the scheduled 2 hour 41 minute trip.
A Delta Air Lines passenger that took a regional jet flight on board an aircraft that appears to have been flying around without any working lavatories shared their experience with me.
According to a passenger on board, the issue began after someone used the lav. No one could stop the water flow. The situation was “chaotic” with passengers lifting their feet and retrieving belongings from the floor to avoid contact with the “disgusting” lav water.
A passenger on a delayed Delta flight got himself stuck in the plane’s lavatory shortly after takeoff. He managed to get “locked in there somehow” and couldn’t figure out how to get out. The lock was sticking, several flight attendants couldn’t free him, and finally “one of the pilots..got the job done with a butter knife.”
After 9/11, the cockpit gets blocked off when the door is opened. A pilot goes to the lavatory, and no one can approach the front of the aircraft. That makes sense, but the flipside is that this should be reserved only for the pilot’s important needs. Here, a Southwest Airlines pilot flying from Dallas Love Field to Los Angeles reportedly spends a part of the flight chatting up a flight attendant, while passengers are forced to wait to use the lavatory. That seems like bad judgment to me – and actually illegal!
A MileagePlus 1K passenger had an “absolute meltdown” seeing another passenger come up from economy trying to use the lavatory in first class. Are they actually permitted to do this, though?
Here’s what happened, according to a United Airlines captain,
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
