Originally Posted by
Tizzette
Not fair. Another passenger is given a free amenity kit, drops it, it slides down the aisle to my seat. I watch for OP or an FA to look around for it so I can return it but OP doesn't bother. It is an abandoned, unwanted amentity kit worth maybe $5. So yes, I feel it is OK to keep it. I don't want or need somebody else's amenity kit, this is just my comment on the ethics of the situation presented. Different story entirely if it were somebody's Bose headphones or any personal belonging, which should be turned in.
OP mentioned that the kit fell on takeoff and that as soon as the chime sounded, they jumped up to take it. What is the FA or OP supposed to do, unsafely and illegally get up while the plane is taking off to retrieve it? If you know whose it was and you take it and don't give it to the person you know is the owner, especially when it fell on the floor and slid on takeoff so the owner couldn't easily get it or ask a FA to help because it wouldn't be safe for them either, then you are stealing it or as good as stealing it by taking it. What the value of the kit is or whether it was a complimentary kit is immaterial. And it wasn't abandoned according to the OP; it fell and they had no chance of retrieving it before someone else took it knowing full well it wasn't theirs. (Not a comment on you in particular, but on the ethics of taking an item that you know is someone else's when you could return it.)