# Do you remember smoking sections on airplanes? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 13, 2021, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-smoking-sections-on-airplanes/941974 "2021-05-13T09:32:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 99
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2021, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-smoking-sections-on-airplanes/941974/99 "2021-05-16T15:58:46Z")
> [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > Last year I needed to use the bathroom at the car dealer, which was probably built in the 1960s. The bathroom stalls had ashtrays. Little known fact. The lavatories on airliners still have a little fold-out ashtray set into the inside of the door. It’s the same ashtray as was there in the 1960s and is still required to be there by FAA regulation. The thinking being that that’s the least bad place for an illicit smoker to dispose of an illicit butt. Far better there than in the trash can full of used paper towels, etc. Or down the toilet where the solid cig filter can eventually hang up somewhere downstream. And we don’t want them disassembling the pop-up sink stopper / strainer to drop their butt down there either; that plumbing is even more cloggable. > [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > … > At Zurich airport there are designated rooms for smoking which have negative pressure, so all the smoke stays in the room and then exits the building. It’s possible to walk right next to the room, which has floor-to-ceiling glass walls, and not smell smoke. There are some outside areas as well, I believe, which also have places for taking one’s dog between security and boarding. Both negative pressure smoking lounges and dog-relieving areas are becoming more common at airports all across the US. One especially interesting smoking lounge at Miami International is an open-air bar in the middle of the terminal building belonging to **[TGI Fridays](https://www.tgifridays.com)**. You’re welcome to smoke in there as long as you buy a drink & don’t linger. They cut a hole in the roof of the terminal building so you’re sitting in this 40’x40’ space with the open air 3+ stories above you and a semi-permanent tent over the square bar in the center. When it rains, patrons get wet. Fortunately snow in Miami is very rare. Sadly they weren’t quite inventive enough to make the tent look like a tiki bar, for which Miami is justly famous. Ref this recent thread: > [@Tiki Culture](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiki-culture/940795): > > Recently I was reminded of [Tiki Culture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiki_culture), restaurants and bars with a South Pacific theme. My girlfriend at the time, and I, liked to go to Kelbo’s on Pico Boulevard in L.A. In the '90s, we found it deliciously tacky and a lot of fun. The food was OK, too. [Here’s a menu](https://www.reddit.com/r/VintageMenus/comments/5mkdze/kelbos_hawaiian_barbq_hollywood_ca_1968/). Now, I grew up watching old movies on TV. Movies like Bali Hai, Operation Petticoat (dad’s fave) and Donovan’s Reef. And TV shows like Gilligan’s Island and McHale’s Navy. Plus dad was in the 7th Fleet. So I had some exp… If you switch to satelite view & look for the red thing just alongside https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=25.7974076,-80.281784&z=18&output=embed&dg=ntvb&q=Miami%2BInternational%2BAirport --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-smoking-sections-on-airplanes/941974)._