Are the cockpit and crew rest area considered part of the cabin? A few days ago, a travel blogger wrote about smoking on a China Eastern flight, and the smell of cigarettes came from either the cockpit or the crew rest area:


  So I’m not sure who is smoking, though I have to assume that it’s
  either the pilots in the cockpit, or otherwise the flight attendants
  in the galleys and crew rests


The CAAC's (Civil Aviation Administration of China) decree #71 banned smoking in the cabin and toilets in domestic and regional (HK, Macau and Taiwan) scheduled flights, as well as smoking in non-smoking areas and toilets for international flights. The major Chinese airlines don't have smoking areas on international flights anyway.

In reality, many pilots and first officers on Chinese airlines smoke in the cockpit, regardless of whether it's a domestic or international flight. It seems that the cockpit and crew rest area are not part of the cabin according to Chinese standards.


Are the crew rest area and cockpit considered as part of the cabin according to ICAO?
Does any major civil aviation authority consider them to be part of the cabin?
Speaking as an ex cabin crew with one of the world's largest airline. I can definitely say that the CRC is part of the cabin, as safety and security checks are completed by the crew as part of cabin checks. 

Flight deck if I'm not mistaken is not considered part of the cabin. However smoking is usually not allowed according to general aviation rules everywhere. Not even e-cigarettes are allowed. Why are e-cigs not allowed if they have no smoke you may ask? 

Reason is that many people might see someone using an e-cig and think that it's ok to smoke, hence lighting up a real one. This has happened before.

I've even had faulty no smoking lights on flights and passengers thinking that smoking in that specific area of the plane where the light is faulty is fine. 

When travelling people tend to pack so much stuff for their trips but leave the most vital thing behind - their brains!