United Airlines has called a temporary truce in the class warfare over access to inflight lavatories, at least for now allowing passengers from the back of the plane to use business and first-class lavs under some conditions.
The airline announced that it’s waiving its long-standing ‘go in your own cabin’ rule for now to reduce queuing in the aisles and congestion. Passengers will now be allowed up front if there are lines for some facilities and not for others, or when service carts are active in the aisles.
The ‘stay in your ticketed class’ rule is common across airlines, and is sometimes explained to passengers as an FAA rule, rather than an airline one, is not completely gone; here’s United’s announcement: “We’ll continue to ask customers to use the lavatory in their cabin via an onboard announcement, but we’ve added ‘when possible’ to the announcement in order to reflect the increased flexibility.”
