alexwuk

I had a very unusual experience today and wanted to get your thoughts on it.

I flew in F on a 77W in the standard 4 first class seat configuration. As I got to my seat, I saw one of the other F passengers wearing disposable latex gloves, using a series of wipes to clean every surface of his First class suite.

• Underside of the table? Yep
• Inside door of the locker? Yep
• Surround board of the seat? Yep

The whole process took about 10-15 minutes and was exceptionally thorough.

Question I have is: do you think this is normal, and do you think there’s any benefit to this, given you’re in a confined space with many other pax, most probably with worse hygiene standards?

Ironically enough, the passenger didn’t wear a face mask after all that cleaning.

Compliment

With the amount of people I see leaving public bathrooms without washing their hands, I can totally understand.

AAtticus

I wish they would take more Scoot Plus flights too, it would be beneficial for all of us.

commaspace

It's not normal to be that thorough but understandable. People are disgusting. I always use the wipes for high touch surfaces like IFE, remote, etc. but not under the table.

onlySIA

Not at all normal, which is why you yourself described it as "unusual". Some people are germaphobes and, like all phobias, it doesn't have to be logical (like not wearing a mask - though at least with a small cabin like that you are probably not getting too close to anyone else).

sydunipete

Some people have autoimmune diseases which make them very susceptible to infection so that could explain some "paranoia". I believe the air filters on modern aircraft are very good. During the peak "C" period LH used to issue passengers with antiseptic wipes for exactly this purpose.

Having said that - I've never gone to such extremes.

SMK77

The passenger in question has been identified... ;p

AJNEDC

I clean the headrest area the window area and the remote. I do not know where the last person who occupied the seat has been. I say you do you and let others do themselves.

AJNEDC

Agreed. People are simply disgusting. I applaud that pax. I do wipe down the seat myself but I have never done under the table.

demue

I do usually have a good look at the seat and if stuff bothers me I ask for one of those antibacterial wipes SQ has and give table, some of the surfaces and the remote a wipe.

Out of my last ~10 J flights, sadly I had probably 6 of those where the seat was not properly cleaned by the cleaning staff. I had remaining red wine spill on part of the seat cushion and the left seat panel (A359LH), food (some sort of curry with a crusty potato bit I think) at knee height on the center divider (B789), coffee / cola stain or so on the fold out table, a sticky armrest (B789), etc.

All documented with pics, if it was bad I showed it to the crew and whenever I got the post-flight VOC (voice of customer survey) I marked this part down and explained (not that it mattered or that anyone would have asked about it afterwards ).

So yeah, I wipe the seat and even if it looks clean, you'd be amazed how greyish / blackish a wet wipe can turn when you are done .​

opus2002

Is this with SQ?

opus2002

Just what are the airline procedures for cleaning your seat area after every flight? Do they clean at least the high touch area?

demue

​​​​​​Yes, all flights on SQ and all in Biz (to/ from DPS, KIX, FRA, MUC, etc.) as else wouldn't be sensible to post it in this SQ discussion.

Nothing was absolutely terrible and super gross, but at least some of the instances the spills / stains should definitely have been spotted. Probably my "alertness" to it also increased post-Covid and to be fair, cleaning crews during an a/c turnaround have seconds per seat even in Biz, but such is the state of airline operations (and staff shortages of ground handlers and all) these days.

I showed the crew if it was bad so they could put it into a VR (voyage report) so at least someone at SQ has samples and stats for the (maybe annual) reviews with the cleaning providers. Crew are usually embarrassed, but they can't be everywhere and spot everything, so no issue for me.

Maybe I had an unlucky streak . My last KIX trip was fine though so maybe my luck is on the mend. YMMV.

lokijuh

TItle: "Self Cleaning Seat (in F)"... Am I the only one whose mind jumped straight to "self cleaning seat" along the lines of automatic cleaning ("self cleaning toilet")?

No doubt someone who is neurodiverse, or with OCD &/or germophobia which leads them to a very thorough cleaning. This seems more thorough than many people who do give various surfaces a wipe over.

For me, rarely see the need to clean anything on a plane (other than toilets in economy, particularly towards the end of the flight on certain air-roo-lines), and SQ crew do a great job in all cabins at keeping toilets clean. Probably most important to maintain good hand hygiene when using hands to ingest food. Between my clothes and skin, which offer a good degree of protection, and the cabin environment, I am not terribly worried about germs and disease on board planes. And honestly can't pinpoint getting ill from something I picked up in a flight, in well over a thousand flights.

When travelling plenty more to worry about, and for years I travelled to rural areas in countries like India, Bangladesh, Indonesia etc, so it's all relative.

sqyf

My first thought was also that this thread was about some inflight innovation where the F seat would somehow disinfect itself :-)