It’s not uncommon for passengers to be offered items to help boost their comfort on long-haul flights.
But a travel expert has warned holidaymakers to avoid one common plane freebie – the blankets.
Many passengers use them to sleep or keep warm, and some even take them home.
But, despite how appealing the blankets may seem, Busbud CEO, LP Maurice, who has worked with industrial laundry managers, says they may not actually be clean.
However, there’s a way to tell.
Maurice told Fodors Travel: ‘On a typical long-haul turn, the linen carts roll straight off the aircraft and go to a contractor that washes at 60°C – 90°C with peroxide, dries on high heat, and shrink‑wraps each blanket or pillowcase.
‘When you see a tight plastic envelope on your seat, it usually means that the item came off a wash line earlier that day.’
But, Maurice explained the situation can be different when a flight is late and there isn’t time to properly change the blankets.
He said: ‘However, if the preceding flight landed late and the aircraft is turning in 25 minutes, crews will keep any blanket that looks unused.
A travel expert has warned holidaymakers to never use a common plane freebie for one particular reason
It’s not uncommon for passengers to be offered items to help boost their comfort on medium or long-haul flights
Travellers have been urged to not use the free plane blankets given out on some journeys
‘They fold it, place it back on the seat, and hope the next traveller does not notice.’
The expert revealed that a line manager once admitted to him that in ‘one busy hub’ only a fifth of blankets on economy flights are washed, while the others are folded ‘unless visibly stained’.
One passenger found this out the hard way when she realised the blanket she was using wasn’t clean.
Travel advisor Georgia Fowkes told Fodor how she opened a ‘sealed’ blanket once and discovered ‘long hairs tucked inside the folds’.
She went on to detail the further issues she noticed, including foundation stains and ‘a faint shampoo smell’.
