malbarda

I have flown well over 2 million miles with airlines and airplanes large and small and have visited (and lived in) many different countries around the world. I am a bit of a airplane toilet cleanliness nerd, and have been known to wipe down the sinks, toilet seats and even the floor on planes. I have also noticed some of the design “flaws” that certain aircraft with certain kind of toilet lay-outs have.

Like on the Airbus A330 and 340, the width for the paper hand towel holder is just too narrow for the hand towels (or perhaps the hand towels are too wide…), meaning that if you pull them down a scrap of paper will come loose and inevitably ends up on the floor. Also, very often people don’t notice the paper towel holder and then dry their hands with the face towels, which are flimsy thin leaving little bits of paper towel in the sink. In older Boeing aircraft the tiny spigot for water typically spits out water and some air with force when you are the first user after take-off, with an involuntary soaking as a real possibility.

But I have never experienced anything like the toilet ethics, or actually the lack of toilet ethics, as I experienced on my recent flight to and from Athens, Greece from JFK.

Every time I went to the toilets, inevitably the toilet seats were soiled or at minimum wet, there was a variety of hand towels, face towels and toilet paper on the floor, the sinks were full of water and paper, plugging them up. There was also used toilet paper stuffed down the holder for paper toilet seat covers. Three times I had to go and notify the crew that one toilet or another was so filthy (floors covered in urine, faecis on the toilet seats) that they were unusable.

I was talking to one of the Delta flight attendants how I have never been on a flight where these issues had occurred with this level of frequency and she said that the Athens flight is known for it. So is it because the Greek toilet etiquette is so poor? While in Athens, I used toilets in hotels, restaurants and offices and they were all fine. Have you ever experienced anything like this with other destinations? I sure have not but am curious to hear what your experiences have been.

(PS this flight was a first for me also for the reason that upon arriving back at JFK there were no less than 38 (!) wheelchairs waiting for passengers.)

KevinDTW

Re your point about design flaws in aircraft lavs, my pet peeve is the sinks for which the default position for the drain is closed. So the sink is always filling up with water until someone (frequently me) stands there and holds the lever down so it empties.

On long-haul flights I frequently wonder if some of my fellow passengers have the same bathroom etiquette at home as they exhibit onboard.

84fiero

Wow that's pretty nasty. I've never encountered one nearly that bad before. Some of that almost sounds like someone purposely trying to make a mess - like used toilet paper in the seat cover holder - that's not just a matter of overlooking something.

megalab

Didn't experience that on my DL ATL-ATH rt. Maybe it's New Yorkers?

emma69

Certainly a number of the places I visited in Greece (especially on the islands) there is a waste paper bin for used toilet paper (you don't flush it as their sewage system can't cope with the paper). Same in other parts of the world (most recently a small town I visited in Mexico). My guess is that it was someone for whom that is the norm, and they thought it had to be that 'hole' for the waste paper (as putting it in the loo would be alien to them).

I'm told some flights to / from China can be quite bad, with people trying to use the loo like a squat toilet (and missing). I have seen signs specifically indicating to people not to stand on the toilet (a bit like a no smoking sign with a line through the person standing) so it must be a fairly common occurrence.

OskiBear

For me, the primary design flaw are toilets in the front of the cabin, particularly on narrow-body planes such as the 737 or 757.

I'm 6'2" and it's essentially impossible to urinate anywhere remotely near the toilet. I apologize in advance for any misdirected streams. I do take care to wipe up any errors. Is it impossible to design these lavs such that the toilet is where the sink is - where the roofline isn't as sloped?

Another thing that troubles me is when the toilet lid and seat aren't on very tight hinges. When the flight is a bit bumpy, I always have this fear that while I'm using toilet, the seat and lid will come crashing down with an undesired result.

Do I overthink this???

megalab

No law says a guy's gotta stand so just sit. Won't make you less of a man and much less of a hassle than what you described.

MSPeconomist

I've seen footprints on toilet seats in China and Hong Kong plus on flights in/to/from China.

ADDED: This sounds dangerous on planes. In turbulence, one could lose one's blance very easily and one's foot could be injured and end up stuck it the toilet, even caught in the flush mechanism.

OskiBear

Umm, I would, but the OP's post sort of describes the reason I'd avoid sitting and have much sympathy for the ladies on the plane.

moondog

People that are used to squatting are pretty skilled at it, and have surely encountered much more challenging situations than turbulence on an airplane (e.g. older trains with serious lateral shifts).

Annalisa12

What class? Sounds like economy

Kiwi Flyer

Me too. The other common design flaw is where tissues are below paper/cloth towels so the first tissue is nearly always wet and needs to be discarded.

84fiero

I guess anything's possible. But there is an actual waste bin in the lav, usually with a picture indicating such on the lid. The toilet seat cover holder doesn't usually look much like a waste recepticle - typically just enough space to hold the covers with a lot of open space. Especially if it's not empty, I'd think the presence of seat covers inside it would be a dead giveaway that it's not a place to dispose of soiled paper.

I had that happen once! I did clean up after myself though!