Lav hogs
 

Is it just me, or have other people also found that there seem to be some people on the plane who stay in the lavatory an amazingly loooong time?

I always wonder what in the world they're doing in there: taking a sponge bath? writing a novel? memorizing pi to 10,000 decimal points? ...

sometimes when you NEED to go time runs slowly. Of course I have had to wait and wait and wait wondering what the heck they are doing while trying NOT to wonder what the heck they are doing :)

E

don't stay too long (especially if in an f class lav) as if there is a fam on board, dollars to hockey pucks says he'll be the next person standing in line "waiting to use the lav" after you leave. ;) had it happen to me when i had a major case of "praying to ralph" as dinner from the night before decided not to agree with me at 35,000 feet. sure enough, one of the 2 was waiting in line and spent an awfully long time in the lav after i left. he briefly spoke with the f/a upon exiting, gave aher a smile and kept giving me the "occasional look" throughout the remainder of the flight.

Pee early & pee often is my motto. :)

I've found that if I wait until I really need to go right this minute, there's invariably a wait.

Once on an SFO-CDG flight, I was waiting with a couple of other people for the lav. One of the waiters became impatient and started knocking on the door. After the 2nd round of knocks, a rather peeved-looking woman opens the door and said, "Excuse me, I'm doing a medical procedure." She then closed the door and was in there a few more minutes. That once always puzzled me, but it also taught me to be extra patient.

She might be a diabetic and either checking her blood-glucose level or injecting insulin @:-).

Still broadly on-topic but in the past few months I've had a couple of incidences where I've got up to use the lav and seen the "vacant" sign on the door. But on opening the door, there has been a lady sitting on the seat :eek:. Both times they have made me feel it was my fault :confused: FFS, lock the door if you don't want to be disturbed :confused:

I was standing in line forever yesterday when the lady ahead of me yanked the door of the "occupied" lav to discover that we'd been waiting behind a ghost. :D

worse than that is when you open the "Vacant" lavatory door only to discover that the lady sitting on the can forgot to lock the door behind her... YIKES!

Well, it could be ok. Maybe she's attractive and she'll invite you to join her in the mile high club :D

Wow, this must have been a loooong time ago... ;):p

On one particular flight that I took years ago, a youngish looking guy next to me went into the bathroom before take-off and stayed in there, during take-off, and for about 2 hours after.

It was a four-hour flight, and the whole time that he was in there, my only thought was if I should say anything or not. It was post-9/11, and the fact that no one noticed that the bathroom was occupied the whole time was odd. But, I was 21, stupid, and of the "I don't want to make a scene if he has stomach issues" mentality. The main reason that I didn't say anything was that he looked like he was a spring breaker going back to college and was simply sick to his stomach.

I finally came to my senses and said something to the FA who, with others, immediately banged on the door and luckily, the guy, white as a sheet, opened it. After that, he was taken to the back of the plane and was the first one to be let off when he landed (he was led out by police escorts). I overheard one of the FAs say that he was coming down from being "on something".

To this day, I am kicking myself for not saying anything earlier while being completely grateful that nothing happened.

That seems to happen a lot on transatlantic flights I take, especially eastbound ones landing in the AM. Some people seem to need to do the whole makeup/hair/primping thing in the lav while a line of people who have to pee wait outside.

I'm also a proponent of not waiting to use the lav till you absolutely HAVE to. It's inevitable you'll have a primper in front of you.

Yes! And they're the ones who when they finally emerge flash a shy angelic smile at the people fidgeting in line! :mad:

A few years ago, I was seated near a lav in the mid-section of a widebody, and could easily observe pax going/in out. A man approached the lav with a rather big paperback book, entered, and remained in there for an exceptionally long time. Mind you, I recall it was a completely full flight.

Several pax waited patiently for this lav, but all eventually gave up and went elsewhere.

How rude.:td:

Hey there,

While true, I also have a friend who came down with major food poisoning after leaving Singapore...bound for LAX. Talk about a long flight... :eek:

Though in this case, Singapore Airlines apparently had amazing service as the FAs did everything they could to make him comfortable. This included, at one or two points, "redirecting" passengers to other lavatories on the plane "without a wait." Funny but hey, what are you going to do?

Good thing it was an airline that still believes in service. If it were a US legacy airline the FA would probably claim some FAA-imposed limit on number of trips to the lav and threaten arrest if you left your set once more.