Brighterside

Just before Christmas I had a huge clear out and took bag loads of amenity bags contents/hotel toiletries etc to the local Salvation Army office - they really appreciated it and I now have some well needed space in my house. Win-win all round.



If you do keep contents from washbags/hotels bear in mind that some don't last forever - for example L'Occitane have a use by date on the base and items such as shampoo/conditioner/body lotions do separate and are not useable.

Can I help you

MiraculousM

You lot that leave them should do like a random lucky dip thing for people in WT - be like "can you give this to seat 64F".

Or we minions on the thread can post when we are back in Y on Long Haiul and you could send it back to us? HAHA

Tafflyer

I do not take them any more. They are full of junk I never use and I do not consider the quality or the value sufficient to warrant the effort of transporting it to somebody else. I am surprised BA still produce these things rather than simply offering passengers the contents as needed. Surely the environmental effects would be better if rather than taking these things for the sake of it, we declined them so that less were produced.

sarah55

Ha! Yes please! This economy traveller would love to get one!

I once found myself in the middle of a cabin otherwise entirely occupied by a huge school group (one downside of choosing your seat ahead of time, is not knowing about potential large groups). One of the FA's saw my predicament and went to see if he could find me another seat. When he discovered the flight was full so he couldn't help, he kept me plied with bottles of wine and brought me a 1st class amenity kit! I was thrilled!

atcer28

nldogbert

I've a couple of times wanted to just give this (when it is already on the seat during boarding) to whomever sitting in Y when passing through J, but to me it seems rather akward and I guess for the person they might feel that there is another meaning behind it or suspicious on getting one from a stranger. As for asking the FA to do this, I would doubt that they will do this as it will be most probably 'against company rules'.

Cheers!

Richmond_Surrey

I dismantled them and sorted toiletries in order to use them. I have a lot of lip balms now ;-) Using all moisturising creams, etc. Right now on QR products but still have some from BA First. I use socks and PJs at home and keep them for guests as well. Also decided to use all toothbrushes instead of buying new ones. Nicer amenity kits went as gifts to friends or kids of family and friends. Mentioned earlier Tumi bag is used for electronics, Lufthansa one for cables, etc. Newer White Company small amenity bag is ok for carrying in hand bag for spare toiletries, etc.

Took some stuff for a friend to use in hospital, he was thankful for earplugs and eye mask.

MiraculousM

I wonder if it is against company policy? I would be intrigued to find out.

I, for one, would love it if someone came up to me in the back and said "Would you like my amenity kit? i am not going to use it so thought someone would quite like it" but im quite an open person so wouldnt happen to have a problem with doing this, although i understand why some people, especially men, would feel uncomfortable doing it. They are also especially helpful to me as during long hauls, i tend to either be sleeping in hostels or on friends couches at destinations so i dont have any luxuries at all haha (its the only way i can afford to travel long haul).

The ones that were sent to me by the flyertalk poster were used to make my flights a bit more enjoyable as i wouldnt open then till i was up in the air.

I do think that we should start a Flyertalk thing where if there are the likes of us Y no status passengers on a flight, we post about it and hope someone here is on our flight haha

Dover2Golf

I keep the occasional one for things like medication, cables and so on.

The vast majority go unopened to a homeless shelter where the manager tells me the toiletries are appreciated and so are the bags.

fin_dg

Hostess

Your local food pantry or shelter will happily accept them. Many food pantries have multiple drop-off locations in town.

ng1265

I went through different phases for them, depending on the category:
Kits:
->When on our honeymoon on QR, we collected them along with the unused ones at the end of a flight, and gave them away as thank you gifts to family members who helped organising the wedding
->The AV ones are good for cable storage, I have a handful of them used for laptop chargers
->The ones which I didn't like went to charity
->Metal ones are used as pencil/pen cases at home
->Those who had "perishables" in them were emptied. I sorted out the perishables and gave away the stuff I didn't need to a charity taking care of the homeless (to be honest, I don't need 60 toothbrushes at home for instance :-) )
->Small, colorful and fun ones go to my kids to store their stuff
->Practical ones are used as their intended second use: one EVA J kit is now my de facto travel toiletry bag, an old VS kit as a travel organiser, another VS as a tablet pouch, etc
->I keep the PJs :-)

Toiletries (include hotel toiletries)
->As a general rule, I assume that toiletry which has been put in an hotel room can be taken (talking about shampoo/gel/lotion/grooming kit/etc) since it is not clear whether those would be changed after I check out
->No more than 5 shoe polish brushes at home, the rest go to a charity which helps people find work
->Miniature toiletries should fill into a dedicated shoe box (one for shampoo, one for conditioner, etc) if one is full, the oldest unopened items are given to charity for the homeless. Saves on shampoo costs! :-)
->Slippers kept for guests. A good friend of mine even had his own pair he customised and used whenever he'd come round

I'd also collect the kits left on a seat at the end of a flight for a certain airline, since a well-placed contact there told me they'd just throw away the stuff. I would then sort out the kits' contents, bin anything opened/with broken seal and give the rest to charity. Depending on how much space I had in my luggage of course.

Now that in my new job it's Y-only travel, I don't have this problem anymore.

Ronlap

Your local USO (USA only) would be VERY interested in partial or full kits to give away to service members. Most airports have one.

Other countries may have their own similar service organizations.

rosege

You really should give your neighbour something that you might need in the future then you can borrow it from him.