What’s your go-to in-flight beverage? If you typically ask for cup of joe with your pretzels, you may want to brace yourself for what one flight attendant on TikTok has to say.
Inspired by a Reddit post asking flight attendants for their “dirty little secrets of the industry,” a TikToker named Kevin, a.k.a. @ichbinvin, dished out some shocking details—including a shocking truth about airplane coffee. According to him, flight attendants are required to dump coffee pots into the toilet—which could cause some gross backsplash. Find all the details below.
@ichbinvin #flightattendant #travel #airline ♬ original sound – keVin
Flight attendant warns about unsanitary coffee practices
TikTok is a great source for learning secrets about industries ranging from fast food to retail workers, but we don’t often get the scoop on flight attendants. Luckily, Kevin took to the platform to spill some tea (or coffee). Throughout his revealing TikTok, he references multiple comments on a Reddit post that asked the question, “Fight attendants, what’s the dirty little secrets of your industry?”
“As a flight attendant I am crying at some of these,” the TikToker said.
One comment in particular promoted Kevin to share an especially startling secret. The Redditor emphasized that the water tanks on airplanes are "rarely, if ever cleaned, and they use this water to make coffee on board." The comment went on to say, "I don’t want to think about the mold and bacteria growing in those tanks." The same is frequently said about soda machines at restaurants. However, this isn't Kevin's main concern when it comes to the coffee on airplanes.
"The fact that the tanks rarely get cleaned that the water is in should be the least of your concerns," he says. "For me, it’s always been the way that flight attendants have to clean out coffee pots." And what way is that, exactly? The unfortunate truth is that coffee is getting dumped down the toilet.
"For whatever reason we’re not supposed to empty coffee pots in drains," Kevin stated. "We’re supposed to dump it down a toilet. So when you take a coffee pot and dump it in a toilet… you have to get a little close to the toilet, and I imagine that there’s some kind of backsplash of particles, bacteria, whatever, that goes directly back into the coffee pot, which gets put right back into the coffee maker." Gross!
He offers some advice for anyone who doesn't want to sit through a flight without their caffeine fix. "You really need to get to the airport ten minutes earlier and buy a coffee in the terminal," the TikToker emphasized. "Unless the airport that you’re flying has an espresso maker on the plane, I would not get coffee on the plane." Dunkin, here we come! You could try the loaded hash browns while you're at it, too.
Other "dirty little secrets" outlined in the video include the fact that seat pockets are never cleaned (besides trash being removed) and the fact that flight attendants have access to all passenger names–and often Google them.
"Yes, absolutely flight attendants Google people," Kevin said. "Somebody good looking, in business class, without a wedding ring on… you’re getting googled."
We'll take that over toilet coffee any day!
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