JVPhoto

Used the mid-cabin during boarding when the front galley and open cockpit are more of a cluster? Then in flight the front F one?

iluv2fly

That's exactly what I did yesterday.

But I have used the mid lav when in seated in F if the F one is occupied.

FLYMSY

Your assumption is In-Correct.

raehl311

Actually, it's not that you trust the crew to not smoke and you don't trust the passengers.

It's that you trust the crew to not throw their ashes in the paper waste bin and don't trust the customers to not start a fire in the lav.

TomMM

Or their live ammo.

Mac1K

UA 1711 DEN-CLT on a 737-900, the first class lav was "unusable" for FC passengers and we were relegated to the forward lav in the coach section. However, the crew used the FC lavatory several times during the flight. They would remove the do not use sticker while in use and replace it when finished. When the lav door was opened, I could see some fluorescent tape over the sink area so I presume the faucet or drain was inoperable. However, we were given no explanation; just that we were not allowed to use it.

Interestingly, the lav door on my origination flight from SLC to DEN didn't lock. The flight attendant did announce that fact and made light of it which was nice.

Two consecutive UA flights with lav issues... I'd say UA needs to put some effort into their lav maintenance-hopefully their maintenance of critical mechanicals is not in the same state of affairs, however it makes one wonder.

MargaretM

As a f/a, we just had this happen just prior to departure when I noticed the f/c lav motor did not stop running, kept flushing non-stop.
Not sure what the exact rules are now, but have changed at times after 9/11. Used to be then, that the capt could refuse the aircraft w/ an inop f/c lav, (since it is a safety/ security issue for the pilots to be away from the cockpit and have to walk to the back of coach to use that lav) now, not sure if that is still true since I have seen some pilots be more relaxed when this has happened and depending on how long flight is and if they can avoid a bathroom break, or where the next closest lav is like on a 757.
Our incident, capt said he would accept the a/c, but to block it off. We were on our last leg and didn't want to wait for another a/c or delay the paxs a couple hours since the capt thought they would take our a/c out of service.
I did explain to the f/c paxs what had happened. To watch their liquids consumption, especially while main cabin f/a's were in the aisle doing their service.
Yes, we did use the f/c lav for ourselves and to wash our hands.

PS: We did block off the lav once when a mentally handicapped pax used it on boarding in SNA and smeared his considerable feces on EVERY conceivable surface in the lav, including the mirror. We took a delay to have the lav cleaned. It 'looked' clean but after take-off I noticed it still had some streaky residue. If it wasn't cleaned well enough for me, I didn't want my f/c paxs to use it either. I had it blocked off. Of course, we had the lav cleaned again in DFW and NO, the crew did not use the lav that flight!

ACDouglas

Well, there's the answer.

timfountain

Same thing happened to me on a 739 last week, DEN-PDX. Was told the lav was INOP and the use the mid lav. No explanation of why the lav was INOP, was only told as I tried to move forward past the 'resting' crew. Crew were happily using the forward lav.

Specific flight was UA276 on 8/5

LaSenora

I've had this happen on several flights recently. All UA flights by the way. It seems some flight crews just want the front lav for themselves. I was told that in case a pilot came out and needed to use the bathroom right away, they needed to make sure it wasn't occupied as he'd be needed back on the flight deck as soon as possible. (maybe the crew had just returned from a third world country and eaten something that made them have 'the runs'.)

clubord

Ugh....can we put this to rest?

No flight crew is going to put their job on the line to save a working lavatory all for themselves. Been a pilot for quite a while now, never have I seen or heard of such a thing. Lavs get differed for a variety of reasons, still legal for crew use but unfortunately not for passengers. Let's not overthink this...

iluv2fly

Only happened to me once - the first flight I took after 9/11 on a 767. F lav blocked with a curtain.

But in 4 million miles on UA, that was the only time. I think that a simple announcement of why this was happening would help things a lot. If I encounter such a situation without some kind of explanation, you can bet I would be contacting United about it.

physioprof

This makes a lot of sense to me. Hard to conceive of sufficient motivation for flight crew to close off F lavatory purely for their own convenience. It just doesn't pass the smell test.

mdobbins

Highlighting is mine.

Well played sir; well played! ^

physioprof