Never Try To Hand A Used Sick Bag To The Flight Attendant (Here's Where To Put It Instead)
Ask anyone who flies regularly what makes their most memorable trips and what renders certain airlines favorites of theirs, and you're sure to hear one reason most of the time: flight attendants. These helpers in the air often go underappreciated, but the truth is, the services they provide on flights are irreplaceable, all while maintaining a friendly mood and a big smile. As a token of gratitude, you should always be polite to your flight attendants — and everyone else, really — and avoid things flight attendants want you to stop doing. And sometimes, this involves how you handle the barf bag on a plane.
One not too uncommon situation is when a passenger has to vomit into a sick bag due to airsickness or some pre-existing condition, and while it may be convenient to the passenger to just hand the used sick bag to a flight attendant and let them deal with it, this gesture is not only offensive and rude, but also poses a significant health risk to the flight attendant and everyone else on the plane. In fact, some cabin crew will refuse to take a used barf bag due to health and safety rules.
Throw out your used sick bag yourself and never hand it to your flight attendant
Flight attendants know the ins and outs of flying better than anyone else, like these clever tips they use while they are passengers and what they know about airplane bathrooms that you don't, and while handing meals, delivering drinks to your seat, or assisting a kid with their belt, they need their hands to be clean and healthy, something that would be severely challenged if a passenger were to hand them a used sick bag.
Instead, you should wait until you can use the bathroom, and while that can sometimes be involuntary, you should always aim to make your trips to the toilet when meals are not being served — another annoying behavior that flight attendants hate. Once in the airplane bathroom, you can dispose of the used sick bag in the bin. Alternatively, you can wait until you disembark and dispose of it then. If this is a frequent issue for you, there are some tips that you should remember to make your air trips as vomit-free as possible, like packing some Dramamine, drinking some ginger tea, avoiding alcohol, and eating dry crackers or olives.