Raffles

According to new 'Buying Business Travel' magazine, ANA and JAL will be installing combined toilet-bidets on their 787's. ANA will have them in all cabins whilst JAL will only have them in premium cabins.

If you have ever stayed in a Japanese hotel, you will recognise the Toto toilet they are going to use with its control panel that looks like a TV remote! However, this model will only work when the user in sitting on the seat. This will avoid any embarrassing watery mistakes, as I found myself when I was in Tokyo in 2004 .....

"We will be the first airline to refresh the parts that other airlines cannot reach" says the man from ANA.

VC10 Boy

There was an article in Tyler's Monocole three months ago all about the delights of the Toto washlet. It's coming to Europe too this year and I believe is either being manuafcturer or imported into Germany.

If you do hit a button by mistake, just remember no matter how surprised, do not stand up.

HIDDY

Great - raising the legs to wash your feet in those small sinks onboard is getting harder as the years go by.

NickB

If you are interested in the ins and outs of it (no pun intended ), there was a thread on this issue on the ANA board a month or two back.

phreegreens

Sound advice for many a young man, in all kinds of different situations.

Macspreader

Wonder if the company owner might have a special relationship with BA planned ? Maybe a PREM card or two ;

SchmeckFlyer

Bidets are funny. We have them at our place in the Netherlands. An American friend described it once as a "domestic drinking fountain".

knifeandfork

How I remember first using one of those in the early 90s. Always a curious child, I thought I'd randomly press the Japanese labelled buttons on the side of the loo.

There aren't the words for the degree of surprise that followed, there really aren't....

GUWonder

I won't comment about some Americans using them to wash their face, brush their teeth or rinse their mouth.

The upside of the bidets in the flight is that perhaps there will be fewer splashes of water in the bathroom on those flights were cups get used almost as much as toilet paper nowadays.

AJLondon

Presumes of course that the pax on "those" flights will know how to operate the combined bidet-WC facilites.

GUWonder

That's the other concern -- certainly a more likely one.

LapLap

Depending on the demographic of the flight I might have to pass, huge fan as I am of Mr Toto's contribution to civilisation.

These need to be kept scrupulously clean - something I can usually rely on in Japan especially as I use the Ladies' when out and about.

But you only need someone to do a number two whilst their bum is being rinsed and the little wand will get contaminated - with potentially nasty results, particularly for those of us who use the pink button.

In short, I'd feel happier using one of these on flights from NRT than towards it. Japanese trained cleaners would service it there and passengers will, hopefully, be fully versed by then on its proper use.

JAL & ANA are being very brave (or perhaps they're assuming their pax are). It's a great innovation but.....

KenJohn

Will they also have the heated toilet seat option I wonder?

flyclub

Well I guess there must have been passenger demand for it!

On the subject of funny stories - I recall a few years ago staying at the delightful Park Hyatt with parents they had one.

Parents were in and out of the bathroom the whole time trying different things. As I am not a big fan of water in general, I certainly wasn't going to experiment. What did make me laugh was how, as a result, they must have picked something up as by the time we got to Honolulu they were both quite ill down below......

AJLondon

Maybe Toto can custom make a bubbly dispensing bidet for you! The pink button could dispense rosé too.