ani90

What is hard in saying that the front lavatory is unavailable because of a fault in the waste disposal or whatever? Please accept our apologies as this was just detected in our pre flight checks and whatever else crew may want to add. That is a very statement than 'there is no lavatory at the front if the plane, use the one by row 8 or whatever '.

featheroleather

83% of pax dont listen to pa�s since they have they�re listening/watching their own devices� fact.

physioprof

Departure of EWR-LHR UA934 flight last Thursday was delayed for 1.5 hours for "maintenance". When we were all aboard, the captain announced that the maintenance issue was the "flapdoodle" (some technical term for part of the wing that I can't recall) hydraulic liquid was leaking out, but it was now fixed. I laughed & said to my wife, "Did we really need to know that level of detail?"

mduell

They'd end up with a stream of customers who say they don't/won't smoke pestering the cabin crew to use the lav.

LarryJ

I agree that, as presented, it wasn't a very good announcement. We have over 25,000 F/As and over 17,000 pilots. Some of us will make better announcements than others.

My approach is short, informative, and friendly. Well, at least that's what I try to do.

DJ_Iceman

OT, but I just wanted to say that I would *love* to have Donald Duck as the FO on one of the flights in the DYKWIA thread. "Don't make me call the cockpit, ma'am--our first officer is already in a bad mood today." Hilarity ensues!

mfirst

mduell - you are exactly right..... and then there would be a bigger problem

also, I am not sure why people also feel that this is a democracy and that "we" the pass are "entitled" (just because we pay the tickets?) to know everything at all times...... if something isnt working, then so be it.... yes, maybe curious - but deal with this
I very highly doubt this is some form of Pilot Cabal Conspiracy to make life miserable for the pass

....remember, there are just some things we probably dont want to know the answer to

zombietooth

I'm ex-military and am used to giving and taking orders and receiving minimal information. I'm perfectly content with, "the port lavatory closest to the cockpit is unavailable" . I don't need any explanation. To me it's equivalent to an announcement saying that they're out of Coke Zero. Now, if there is a MX problem that's going to delay the flight, I want lots of info so that I can assess whether I should be seeking alternative transportation.

mfirst

zombie - if they are out of Coke Zero, then there better be a very good reason and I want to know about it! I'm still unhappy about them getting rid of Sprite Zero

LaserSailor

I think elimination of these issues will get UA a Head of the problem.

ExplorerWannabe

In my experience, a significant number of passengers who frequently fly up front would use such information to argue with the flight crew about being able to use that lav (or just ignore the closure) so they didn't have wait behind the hoi polloi for the available lavs. Once one person starts ignoring the restriction, it encourages others to. It's unfortunate but sometimes it's better to NOT give out more information.

lincolnjkc

I'm the opposite -- the child of hippie parents who to the chagrin of many a teacher in my life instilled that "because I said so" is never an acceptable answer -- asking "Why?" has served me quite well professionally. I'm also noticeably uneasy when I feel like I'm missing details to form a complete picture ("delayed for maintenance" drives me crazy, "delayed while maintenance waits for the adhesive on the windshield to cure" I'm completely at ease with)

But, I can also understand the reluctance of crew to provide too much information given that while I'm weird (my wife says "limited edition") there are also a fair number of passengers who are uneasy fliers and hearing "maintenance" or "fire" or "wawwaawawawawa fire wawawaawawawa maintenance wawawawa" will detract appreciably from their comfort. -- the same reason why I love reading about/watching accident investigations but it freaks my wife out too much to be in the same room. I can also see the rules-are-for-everyone-else crowd creating an issue depending on the phrasing used.

It would be nice if there were a way to convey the extra information to those who care without distressing/bothering those that don't. An "expert mode" for flight status anyone?

uanj

I don't think there is an issue about a lav being inoperable. Questions come up when you hear that but see the crew using the supposedly inoperable lav. And that's understandable. The announcement should be the lav is inoperable for passenger use.

What I have learned after reading this thread it is possible a lav can be inoperable but still used by the crew. For crew reading this thread I hope they can at least start to understand there have been (hopefully) very limited cases where cockpit crew decided to reserve one of the lavs for their use.

I have only seen this on WB aircraft out of the West Coast. A pilot would come of the cockpit, take a cocktail napkin, lock a lav and jam the napkin under the latch. An FA explained to me that this way the crew would know the occupied lav with the napkin was actually not occupied and "reserved" for them. When they went to use the lav, they removed the napkin and unlocked the lav. On exiting they locked it from the outside and replaced the napkin.

Most knocked before entering just to be sure. That was what initially caught my attention, no one usually knocks on a lav door before going in. Then I saw they were manually unlocking them from the outside and an FA explained the napkin routine to me. In case you are wondering there was nothing written on the napkin.

I have this impression it happened more on my flights out of LAX to HKG, NRT and SYD but it has been a while. I think I already mentioned I once politely asked a pilot chatting with me and an FA in the upper deck galley of a 747 and the pilot pounced on me. Said complain to United if you don't like it and immediately returned to the cockpit. Both I and the FA were kind of surprised. This was back in the days I flew more than monthly so I surprisingly got to know a few of the FAs.

To be very clear, I have not noticed this in at least 5-6 years. But it definitely used to happen. I am in no way intending to disparage any pilots flying today.

LarryJ

This was noted earlier in the thread, but what you describe is what happens on augmented flights (3 or 4 pilots) during a shift change. It is done so all 3, or 4, pilots can cycle through the lav and complete the shift change quickly. It shouldn't last too long.

uanj

What I am saying is that they did this for the duration of the flight.