sancht

I've been a FlyerTalk member for years but this is my first ever post as I couldn't find any reference to "Delta's Toilet Paper Quality Test" that happened live on a flight from Salt Lake City to Spokane today (DL 1220).

This is how it went down:
- The flight attendant unraveled a roll of new toilet paper along the aisle starting at the first class restroom going all the way back to seat 20ish (on the 737) - it appeared as if she was marking an "emergency exit path" using toilet paper.
- She then flushed the toilet and only a part of the "toilet paper path" got sucked in while it got ripped somewhere around row 4
- She shook her head and cleaned out the aisle
- Having inquired she mentioned that this was her way to test the toilet paper quality on the flight. She claimed that she had been doing this for 23 years and in the early days, toilet paper rolls would get sucked all the way through, but with the recent cost cutting (and deteriorating toilet paper quality), the paper would rip almost immediately.

She looked quite surprised that none of us FFs knew what she was doing and again mentioned that this was a common exercise.

I'm really curious to find out if anyone else has experienced this before?

acjflyer

That is probably one of the funniest incidents I've heard of in a while. Never experienced that myself.

Although I have to say that the DL flight from ATL-CVG on Saturday I was on had two different kinds of toilet paper, so would she test both of those?!?

rcbarton

I've seen videos of this on youtube (the guy that flew airtran for 30 days straight as a publicity stunt did it in one of his postings) but I have no idea why a FA would be doing this during a flight.

MastaHanky

Probably just trying to imitate the video herself - and failing.

AndyTLe

Welcome to FT.

One heck of a first post. I can say, I've never seen this.

Exiled in Express

I have heard of this being common on WN, never seen it myself. I can imagine it could be 10 minutes of entertainment on a longer flight.

Pharaoh

So is this procedure measuring the strength of the TP or it's perforations? Or the coefficient of friction of the aisle carpet?

anotherATLelite

+1

AndyTLe

So this got me searching on YouTube

Sounds like FL has stronger toilet paper than DL. YouTube video from Mark Malkoff http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDEyLzvcDb8

Toilet paper races on WN http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLOYDKX1JLc

GTITAN

Are we really getting the straight poop here? As a DL-PM thank you very much, I expect nothing but the softest, best TP ever! Give me anything less and that poop ain't gonna fly

AndyTLe

Now that I think about it. Is the toilet paper in First/Business any better than that in Y? Some airlines have better facilities up front, do those airlines have softer toilet paper as well?

Back to the OP's post, isn't it good that the paper broke denoting? possibly denoting a softer, more forgiving toilet paper?

GTITAN

I tend to think that the TP in premium cabins seems nicer than in Y for long haul international. Of course, there may be more of a reason that this gets field tested.

Safe Travels

itsaboutthejourney

We all know that NW had much better TP until DL took that away too with the merger ..................... kidding!! , I do love this thread, it's on a quite a "roll"!

apados

Yeah this probably the funniest one I've seen in a while

Himmelhund

Great first post. I have never seen this either; however, flying a lot of DTW-AMS lately and what is needed in the A330-2/3 are bigger toilet seats---softer paper that does not tear would, I imagine, be most helpful as one contorts to, well, you all know. 777 has larger bathroom in BE right next to the galley last row [starboard side] before coach, other than that, the same problem: tiny bathrooms.

If the OP is correct in what the FA said, then the paper is rough and painful too. Just a factoid here, one of the main points that Boeing *was* selling about the (2 years behind and counting) 787 was it has much larger bathrooms and windows.....now Boeing is just selling the promise that maybe someday the plane will move down the runway for taxi testing to see if can move on the ground