Originally Posted by
SOBE ER DOC
Absolutely bothers me. The premium cabin is supposed to provide an exclusive and premium experience. Having folks from the main cabin parading through F to get to the lavatory is irritating. When I am in Y, even if I am in the first row of Y, I will walk to the back of the aircraft to use the lav. My only wish was that more FAs would actually enforce the policies on this.
Where is the written policy for DL? Can you provide it? On AA, the policy is actually the opposite, except on int'l flights to the US, where for security reasons and directed by TSA/DOT, passengers must use the lavatory in their ticketed cabin (I don't know what the difference on flights to the US versus from the US is security wise but that's probably for a different discussion). On domestic flights within the US and int'l flights outbound from the US, AA policy says passengers can use the lavatory in any cabin:
https://thepointsguy.com/news/aa-eco......-bathrooms/
Originally Posted by
SOBE ER DOC
Think of it this way...If you are in a SC how would you feel if non-SC members were permitted to walk into the club to use the lavatories in the club? It's really not all that different. Both are environments where people are paying more for, or have earned through their purchasing history, a premium experience.
Except it's not the same. Ratios are completely different on the ground and it's clear the bathrooms in the SC are for dedicated use of a SkyClub and there (usually) ample facilities throughout a terminal, and there are enough available toilets that a few people taking an excessively long in one means there are still plenty of other toilets where people are rotating through quickly. On a plane, facilities are limited, especially on narrowbodies. For example, on DL's 737-800, with 160 seats (16 F and 144 C+/Y seats), restricting the forward lav to only FC passengers leaves a pax to lav ratio in Y/C+ of 72:1 - and for many of those 144 pax, their lav is going to be blocked for a significant portion of the flight.
Also, the way I see it, it's not a "dedicated lav for FC", it's a lavatory that one has to simply walk past/through the FC cabin to get to, just like one has to pass through the FC cabin on most narrowbodies when boarding. I would agree that passengers shouldn't be waiting in the FC cabin - they should either wait in the galley up by the lav or wait behind the curtain in Y/C+ until the lavatory is available. But if the forward lav is available, there's no reason to deny someone from using it and I feel that way whether I'm in Y or F. I'd rather someone go as quickly as possible and then be able to return to their seat as quickly as possible, especially as being up and unbelted longer than necessary further increases one's risk to being unbelted should the aircraft hit turbulence unexpectedly.