Is It Ok For Coach Passengers to Use First Class Bathrooms? (View from the Wing)

My controversial post on how to avoid gate checking your carry on bag drew comments from many angles.

I wrote a followup post asking who overhead space belongs to.

One other angle that was raised by reader rick was the first class lavatory:

Trying to stow bags in FC/BC is like trying to sneak into the FC/BC toilet when no one is looking. Both unacceptable.

But is it clearly unacceptable for a coach passenger to use the lavatory in a forward cabin?

On domestic flights I’ve certainly heard announcements asking passengers to use the lavatories in their “ticketed cabin.” And yet I’ve rarely seen passengers follow that admonition, nor have I seen flight attendants seek to enforce that very often.

I’m usually sitting up front, and there are certain times when there’s heavy demand for the lavatory — usually just after meal time as trays are being cleared (because everyone has been sitting awhile, and is finally freed to get up) and also just prior to landing. You don’t want greater demand for ‘your’ lavatory.

But there’s also fewer passengers per toilet up front than in back. There are often lines in the back of the plane. Does your first class ticket entitle you to priority access to a toilet?

What about during drink service in the economy cabin, when the drink cart is blocking the aisle especially on a narrow body aircraft? If you’re towards the front of the plane you’re not going to be able to pass the drink cart. If you can’t go forward to the first class lav, you can’t go at all until drink service is done. Does that make it ok to use the first class lavatory?

When I first started traveling for work there would be a curtain drawn between first and coach class on domestic flights. People rarely crossed through the curtain. The removal of the curtain seems to have changed the norm against coming forward. Has what’s appropriate behavior actually changed as well?

Should coach passengers be able to use the first class lavatory on U.S. domestic flights?

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The post Is It Ok For Coach Passengers to Use First Class Bathrooms? appeared first on View from the Wing.

Is It Ok For Coach Passengers to Use First Class Bathrooms?

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