hockeyinsider

I chatted up the pursuer on my flight to Asia today. He was proud to show me that Delta now provides the cabin crew with cleaning supplies for each lavatory in business-class (not sure about economy). He stated that until recently Delta didn't even give the crew rubber globes. Now, they have mops, gloves, cleaning supplies and so forth. Apparently, according to the pursuer, the standard is to clean each lavatory every 30 minutes in-flight.

MSPeconomist

In the past, the "Asian FA" on TPAC flights used to do this on PMNW and IIRC after the merger until these positions were replaced by the language of destination specialists.

jalves

Flew ATL>HNL and return in the past couple of weeks and noticed that the (F) lav's were refreshed during the flight. Not sure how frequently that happened, but glad it did.

hockeyinsider

I just saw a flight attendant walk down the aisle with a mop toward economy, so I presume they do those too.

PRWeezer

Deleted...but still, wow.

355F1

Disgusting Lavs on long-hauls has always been prevalent on DL planes.

I have flown China Air, Singapore, and Cathay in the last year US-Asia in J and I have never seen one of the lavs dirty.

Kudos to DL for at least recognizing that this is an issue.


(Now I wonder if the FA's will actually do it......)

jdrtravel

Watch this be the thing that causes the FA's to unionize. I'm very glad to hear this news, I think it is disgusting that there has not been a cleaning procedure in place up to this point, but I could also understand FA's feeling like they did not sign up to clean toilets as part of their job and resent this being added.

Also, has DL introduced appropriate cleaning procedures for FA's after this? It's hard to use those lav sinks to clean your hands well, and FA's may be doing this at one moment and then prepping meals next.

davetravels

I was thinking the same thing.

Along similar lines, it always feels weird to me when I see them dump the coffee left over in the coffee pot into the toilet - you know, the splash factor, and all . . . but, of course, I realize that the pots are being offloaded - and hopefully sterilized!

hockeyinsider

By the way, I flew Amsterdam-Detroit on Tuesday and there was no lavatory cleaning equipment. Maybe it's only for Asia flights.

Melodsal

If true this would be a big reason for me to switch flights over to DL! I've never understood how UA, DL and the rest manage to get off with such terrible cleanliness standards.

hockeyinsider

Like another commentator said, where do the flight attendants wash their hands? Most of the sinks are barely big enough for my small hands, to say nothing of the fact that the water doesn't typically run long enough to actually wash your hands.

I've seen pursers using mini bottles of hard alcohol to clean their hands.

Zeeb

I hope not! 80 proof vodka isn't gonna kill everything. The stuff in hand sanitizer bottles are 140 proof.

jdrtravel

I've said this before at some point, but I think that long haul flights should include one or two housekeeping crew to clean lavs and generally help keep the a/c tidy (and not serve drinks or meals).

rylan

I don't think every 30 min is feasible or necessary, but every few hours on a long flight, or 'as needed'. Maybe if they just do a check at regular intervals and clean if its becoming a mess. Normally its the sink area that has water all over it, and spilled on the floor.

MEMLawGuy

This. A standard of cleaning every 30 mins seems ridiculous. As soon as they start doing that, people will be complaining that their wines and woodfoods aren't being refilled in a timely fashion.

Just check the thing every once in a while. If it's dirty, clean it.