Tag Archives for lavatory.
Currently American Airlines is installing smaller lavatories across its domestic fleet, taking a few inches away from customers who have to go in order to squeeze in an extra row of seats.
The problem is that today American Airlines isn’t generating any revenue from its lavatories so it’s no surprise they’re trying to limit lavatory footprint.
Last Friday, on August 31, American Airlines flight AA663 from Phoenix to Kona lost all of its functioning lavatories. A passenger reports that “only one restroom at the front of the plane was open, but that the toilet was overflowing.” This gives new meaning to the age-old question of whether coach passengers should use the first class lavatory.
A passenger flushed a diaper down the toilet and that caused the whole system to stop functioning midway through the six and a half hour flight.
While passengers urinating on seat opponents doesn’t happen frequently compared to the number of flights and number of passengers each year, it happens frequently enough to make me wonder whether an airline would attract business by requiring passengers to certify that they’re potty trained, and to blow into a breathalyzer at the boarding gate. And it makes me wonder if airlines not doing this suggests they’d rather have the ticket revenue than discourage the behavior.
For fee-happy airlines like Spirit, Allegiant and United another approach could be onboard sale of Depends.
When I first started writing about American’s 737 MAX and the miniature lavatory, the airline kept asking why don’t I give Southwest the same hard time?
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
American Airlines cancelled its SkyWest CRJ-700 regional jet flight AA3018 from Chicago to Aspen after a passenger locked herself in the lavatory.
The event unfolded in dramatic fashion as the passenger was eventually rescued, issues with the plane required an aircraft swap and a several hours delay before the flight was eventually scrubbed.
Passengers on a delayed Spirit Airlines flight departing Chicago O’Hare last month — sitting on the ground with inoperative air conditioning, presumably no working auxiliary power unit, “babies are crying, everyone is moody” — were treated to a flight attendant dropping some serious life advice.
He asks passengers to share their codine, lithium, quaaludes, and other drugs with their seat opponent — but if it’s a child sitting next to them “do a moral inventory, or just do like my mom used to, she broke it in half and gave it to me.”
Airlines do not intentionally dump lavatory waste inflight. I do not know of any commercial aircraft that gives pilots a control mechanism to do so.
On average once a year there’s a documented instance of ‘blue ice’ — airplane lavatory waste material that leaks from the aircraft. It’s named from the blue disinfectant often used in lavatory waste systems.
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 »
