dmurphynj

Plane's 2 1/2 hours late. We board, finally.

Cleaners come on the plane. Grab trash, leave.

FA: "Aren't you going to clean the bathroom?"

Cleaner: "I did!"

FA: "All you did was take the trash! Who's going to clean the bathroom?"

Cleaner: "It's clean."

FA: "There's urine on the floor!!!"

Cleaner: "There's urine on the floor?"

FA: "This plane sat on the ground for 6 hours before coming here! You didn't think the bathroom would be used??"

Cleaner: "I cleaned it."

FA: "No you didn't! There's urine on the floor!! IT needs to be sanitized!"

Cleaner: "I don't have anything like that."

FA: "Does cleaning mean something different to you??"

Pilot: "I need one of you to run to the grocery store and get some Lysol or something!"

Cleaner: "I don't have anything."

Pilot: "Sorry for the heat, folks. The auxiliary power unit's broken, so we can't run the A/C on the ground."

FA: "I'll open the rear door to try to air the smell out while we wait."

FA answers phone. "Gate XXX. Yes, yes I called. We need someone with sanitizer. No he didn't clean anything - There's urine on the floor!!"

Now there's a conference of a half dozen people on the jetbridge arguing about what "cleaning" means.

United Express at its finest. Abbott and Costello run this airline, I swear.

RandomBaritone

Hardly an ideal scenario, but I'm surprised you're blaming UA. It sounds as if the FA was willing to go to bat to ensure the plane was ready for customers, even when the cleaning contractor couldn't make it happen.

WineCountryUA

Seems the UX employees were trying to get this done right and the non-UA/UX cleaning contractor crew (supplied by the airport or a third party) were the problem.

dmurphynj

The cabin crew are ABSOLUTELY doing the right thing, 100%. This isn't on them at all ... they've been awesome - in fact, the captain stopped at each row of passengers to personally apologize and make sure we were all OK. Really fantastic.

I do, however, still blame UA. I'm departing from my home airport ... good 'ol EWR. Seeing whereas United is responsible for all terminal operations of both Terminal A and C .... they're ultimately responsible for the cleaning failure. Even if they subcontract that out, as the terminal operator, it's their responsibility to make sure I'm not stepping in pee.

CommentatusMaximus

Totally agree. Furthermore, the buck has to stop somewhere and as paying customers the buck stops at who we paid!

DELee

Hopefully the pee stops here!

David

iluv2fly

Unless you are on a P fare.

mduell

Grocery store? Surely there's not one of those less than 45 min roundtrip away?

diburning

Good luck getting that non 3-1-1 compliant can of Lysol past TSA...

dmurphynj

... the 1/3-joking, 1/3-PO'd, 1/3-"disbelief-how-can-such-a-simple-task-be-so-hard" nature of the pilot's statement doesn't exactly come through in a forum. It was quite funny, in a what-I-really-mean-is-that-you're-seriously-telling-me-this-whole-da&n-airport-doesn't-have-any-cleaning-supplies kind of way ....

wanderingkev

X2 My general rule for blame allocation is the name who takes my money on my credit card statement , who they choose to subcontract to or delegate is not my concern