We Tried To Call Out Our Flight Crew For Smoking…

If you didn’t really care that someone was smoking why were you trying to get the crew to admit it?

"The FAA has no jurisdiction over this matter" That's nonsense. The FAA most certainly does have jurisdiction to regulate airline flights (or any other type of flights) to and from the USA and it can take actions up to and including fining the airline or even terminating their permission to fly to the US for violations of the FARs. Non-U.S. air carriers operating flights to/from the U.S. are regulated under Part 129 of the FARs (i.e. 14 CFR 129.)

Smoking is allowed from the cockpit and cabin crew even on domestic US flights. The FAA ruled in the late 90's about safety concerns about nicotine withdrawal from the crew. It is those who smoke who ride in the cabin that has to suffer. I recently flew LAX to Sydney on Delta and every hour or so I could smell cigarette smoke. At first, I thought some American or Aussie was smoking in the toilet, as this is a 14-hour flight, but later found it was coming from the cockpit and the rear crew rest area. The reason you hear a whistling sound in the lavatory is that is where the cabin air is exhausted and that smelly dump you just took, fresh outside air is compressed by the engine turbine, heated, oxygen added and comes through the overhead vents. As for me, I smoke. This decision way back when got me off of commercial flights and into my own private plane. You look at what the airlines are able to pull off now, and the best you can do is "I smell smoke." The cabin air in a commercial airplane is just nasty. You would think this would be updated since it is from 2002. https://www.nap.edu/read/10238/chapter/4 It should be emphasized that recirculation air is not a substitute for outside air and that the flow rate of outside air required to maintain acceptable concentrations of gaseous contaminants is not reduced by using recirculation. Furthermore, the use of recirculation has no detrimental effect on cabin air quality for a given rate of flow of outside air and, when combined with effective HEPA filtration, does not contribute to the spread of infectious agents in the cabin. Recirculation air is obtained from the area above the cabin, under the floor, or both. Only air from the passenger cabin is recirculated. Air from the cargo bay, lavatories, and galleys is not recirculated (Boeing Co. 1988) but is separately vented overboard so that odors and cargo-bay fire-fighting chemicals that could be used in the event of a fire are not introduced into the cabin (Boeing Co. 1995). The flow rate of outside air per seat ranges from 5.9 to 9.6 L/s (12.4 to 20.4 cfm) on older aircraft without recirculation and from 3.6 to 7.4 L/s (7.6 to 15.6 cfm) on aircraft with recirculation (M.Dechow, Airbus, personal communication, Feb. 16 and March 8, 2001; Boeing responses to NAS, April 10, 2001). The percentage of recirculated air distributed to the passenger cabin typically is 30–55% of the total air supply. Some models of aircraft can use different amounts of recirculation or turn recirculation off. Other models are programmed to use different amounts of recirculated air during climb or descent compared with cruise. Table 2–1 summarizes the characteristics of the ventilation systems of various aircraft models (adapted from Lorengo and Porter 1986). It shows that most aircraft use bleed air rather than ram air as the source of cabin air, and it demonstrates that as aircraft have moved from 100% bleed air to recirculated air, the amount of outdoor air has decreased. The use of recirculation has been common in the design of building environmental control systems for many years. In contrast with aircraft, in which the total air flow to the cabin varies from 0% to 55% of recirculated air, building environmental control systems are commonly designed and operated with up to 90% recirculated air. However, the buildings still must maintain flow rates of outside air of about 0.5 kg/min (1.1 lb/min) per person or more to meet ventilation requirements regardless of the amount of recirculation (ASHRAE 1999b).

Gee, in the "good old days" I not only could smoke cigarettes on the plane, I could go in the toilet and smoke weed. What is the point of nostalgia? I could go on forever about how it was, but this is NOW. This is a review and well done for describing everything from the food to the AIR! I'm wondering if the Vogmasks I bought to get through the air pollution in Beijing and Shanghai would help me, as I have developed a strong allergy to tobacco. Also appreciated the point about not having water, so I can buy some if I end up on MU J class. Also appreciated the points about other airlines that tacitly allow smoking. It's an empirical report, nothing more or less, and thank you very much.

You should update your post to include what you have learned. From what I know, all smoking bans are just for the cabins not the cockpit errr sorry that's even now not pc, I mean flight deck