Despite its downward trajectory in the lists of the world’s best airlines, British Airways continues to attract an army of ardent supporters who are willing to defend the carrier for even the most egregious of failures… or, in this case, not being able to provide the most basic of services to passengers.
Yes, I’m talking about what everyone does, but few want to talk about: Going to the toilet.
Business Class ticket no longer gets you toilet paper…or food
by u/Critical_Lemon_7003 in BritishAirways
A few days ago, one unhappy British Airways passenger shared her recent experience of flying with the flag carrier from Hong Kong to London Heathrow – one of BA’s longest routes, clocking in at 9,648 km and with a flight time of around 14 hours.
Suffice to say, at some point during an ultra-long-haul marathon like this, it’s expected that passengers will need to go to the bathroom. And what should they expect inside?
Well, this is British Airways, not Emirates, so a spa-like experience is out of the question, but, at the very least, it wouldn’t be too much to ask for some toilet paper, towels, and tissues, right?
Not so in this case. Going by the username Critical_Lemon_7003, the passenger explained what she found: “4+ hours flight and washrooms looked like nobody bothered to clean up the entire flight. Sticky floor, no toilet paper, no tissues, overflowing bin.”
Having spent thousands on a Business Class ticket, a clean, well-stocked toilet shouldn’t be in doubt. In this case, the passenger provided receipts in the form of four photos showing the lack of said basic toilet supplies.
And the mess continued into the galley, which she said was “full of spills and bits of garbage, which seems to be standard these days.”
Yet, somehow, there were BA loyalists willing to jump to the airline’s defense, with one directing their outrage at the passenger, rather than the airline:
“Typical BA moan. How do you know it wasn’t overly used by the person in front of you? You can’t expect the staff to check in between every single person using the loo,” the commentator wrote.
And another person wrote: “So tired of people coming on Reddit and moaning instead of just asking someone who works there to help?”
There were, however, lots of other people who agreed that the passenger was well within their rights to be unhappy and with good reason. As a flight attendant, I can tell you that allowing a lavatory get into a state like this is unacceptable.
I shouldn’t need to explain any further, but seeing that some people clearly do think this is okay, let me provide more detail.
Airline attitudes to the upkeep of on-board restrooms during a long flight can vary massively from region to region. In Asia, it’s expected that flight attendants regularly attend to the lavatories, wiping them down, cleaning up any trash, and even folding the toilet paper as you would find in a hotel.
In the past, Japan Airlines even used to have a flight attendant dedicated to looking after the restrooms. Yes, they really waited outside and checked the lavatory between every passenger who used it.
As you travel further west, there’s a slightly different attitude. In the Middle East, for example, flight attendants are very much expected to regularly clean the lavatories, although the execution isn’t quite on par with their East Asian rivals.
In Europe and North America, meanwhile, airlines would love the crew to keep the lavatories clean, but understand that contractual issues and crew attitudes probably mean this is hit and miss.
What isn’t negotiable, however, is neglecting a lavatory for so long that every single piece of paper product has run dry. And it’s fairly easy to manage this situation: on a long overnight flight, you know the restrooms are going to be exceptionally busy during and after the breakfast service.
It really doesn’t take much to restock all of the amenities just before this rush gets underway. And if a lavatory has been properly restocked, it would be a very rare situation for all the amenities to be used up by the time that a flight attendant gets around to checking the restroom again.
No one expects an airline to get everything right, every day, and just like everyone else, flight attendants also have off days. There could also have been other things happening that made it hard for the crew to organize their time as they normally would – a medical emergency, say, or a particularly tricky customer service issue.
That being said, I wouldn’t jump to defend a lack of basic service standards on the back of ‘what ifs.’ Ultimately, passengers shouldn’t have to question whether necessities like toilet paper are going to be available, and airlines like British Airways should be listening closely to this kind of feedback.
