American Airlines Passenger Says Flight Attendant Demanded He Flush The Toilet—He’d Only Used The Lav To Put In Contacts

An American Airlines passenger flying from New York LaGuardia to Nashville says he went into the lavatory to put in his contact lenses. When he came out, a flight attendant told him to go back and flush the toilet. He hadn’t used it. Eric Sherman asks whether he should be offended, or whether passengers are so bad about flushing that flight attendants now have to remind them? Judgement call here. Flying on @AmericanAir from LGA to BNA. Went into the lav to put in my contacts. Walked out and the FA grabbed me and told me to go flush the toilet which i didn’t use. Should I be offended or are people just not flushing? @_ZachGriff @thepointsguy — eric sherman (@ericmsherman) View post I think a lot of passengers would feel uncomfortable being sent back as though they’d done something wrong. There’s no reason to flush a toilet just because you’ve been in the same room with it! People go in to freshen up in the mirror, change clothes, brush their teeth (but don’t use the sink water), and here to put in contacts. Clean up your own mess. Flush. Toss your trash. Wipe up the water you’ve splashed around the sink. If you miss the toilet, don’t leave it for the next person thank you very much. Flag a mess that needs actual cleaning. Crew on U.S. airlines may not do anything about it, though if it’s bad enough where they may need to close down the lavatory, it’s good to make them aware. Flight attendants regularly complain about passengers who don’t flush. In one discussion, a passenger asked whether it was normal to be questioned about flushing on their way back to their seat, and crewmembers said it was because it’s such a recurring frustration. At the same time, some passengers do actually clean up after others out of fear whomever goes in next will assume they’d done the dirty. Back in January, I wrote about an American Airlines first class passenger who said they were handed towels to clean a bathroom other passengers had trashed. The duties airlines assign employees vary. And there’s cleaning, and then there’s cleaning. United’s union makes clear just how little cleaning flight attendants should do. In September 2021 guidance, they noted flight attendants should wipe standing water from counters, replenish supplies, pick up loose paper towels, and keep the trash flap closed. They are not to wipe liquid from floors, disinfect toilets, press flush or touch handles. If the lav needs more than this, it should be closed. Delta is non-union and can ask flight attendants to clean more. During the pandemic they had cabin crew wiping frequently touched surfaces with disinfectant. American flight attendants don’t even do restocking since that’s for ground personnel. In contrast, Emirates has a separate onboard cleaning role. Their Cabin Services Assistants on the Airbus A380s handle shower spas as well as lavatories in first, business, and economy. That’s a separate role from flight attendants. There’s usually not much cleaning that needs to be done on a short domestic flight, but that means there needs to be enough time for cleaners on the ground between flights. There usually isn’t much time. On long haul flights, lavatories can get pretty gnarly. It needs to be someone’s job to address that. Topics on this page