Sam Bee

Having just returned from a friend who frequently travels on the Caledonian Sleeper here in the UK (London - Fort William) they pick up Amenity Bags every journey they take (in 1st, equivilant to European J class or ME Y Class) containing basics such as toothbrush, soap, razor, comb etc.

And then I ended up with eight (8) Spongebob Kids Actvities packs from flying with my 2 kids from London to Phuket on Qatar.

I noticed that a lot of the calls from charities in the UK / Eurozone for Syrian Refugees throughout Europe tend to be for toiletries - and that people on Flyertalk have access to them (regular travellers in J probably don't even bother with them anymore, but I know some of you will collect each and every one for 'guests' - but how many of your guests don't bring their own toothbrushes ).

Anyway - Excess & Accessibility to Airline Amenity Kits + Kids Packs = something that can help. So I may be putting 2+2 together to make 5, but i'd like to know peoples thoughts (predominantly those of you in the UK / EU) as to seeing if these can be collected and put towards a good charity that can distribute them.

I have no issues organising, but want to know if i'm being optimistic that a) between flyertalkers we have enough of these (or access to enough in the next month) to make a difference or b) it's not a priority or c) it's not practical - i.e. not worth flyertalkers time or effort compared to chucking in a fiver etc

I havn't thought this through, but would like to see some feedback as to whether it's worth me pursueing - especially at Flyertalkers would be the primary source of what were providing (unless any airlines have bundles of old amenity kits they don't need) - so go ahead, let me know your thoughts!

irishguy28

A nice thought, but the contents of the average amenity kit would be of little to no use to anyone outside of a night-time flight. Even the toothbrushes are likely to break after a few days, and the toothpaste would only be good for 2 or 3 brushings.

There are probably far more essential items lying around the house that could be sent and be far more useful.

GUWonder

I dropped off a bunch of contents from amenity kits at refugee assistance centers in two countries within the past seven days. I was explicitly told by multiple parties involved that blindfolds, earplugs, toothbrushes/toothpaste, shaving devices, and socks were needed. I was also told that diapers and children's underwear were needed, but I couldn't come up with that absent a mini-shopping spree.

Amenity bags were a waste of space, but my collection of hotel cloth laundry bags got great use. It felt like so-called spring cleaning, but it's nearly fall. More importantly, these items seem to be still getting good use or have gotten good use.

Helping out "locally" as was convenient made more sense to me than having a big collection of such stuff that then needs to be more expensively transported to some further off point where goods are cheaper than most of the places where I've been this month.

Sam Bee

Cheers all - there was a general lack of traction - I did post on the BA Forum which I thought would be most relevant, but minimal response. Was thinking they could be collected at the BA do in October!

I've only got a handful as mainly fly Y longhaul. I suppose that if a bunch of Flyertalkers have loads kicking around their houses it's because they want to save them for themselves. Onto the next idea!