What Secrets Are Found In Your Seat Pocket When Flying?

The humble seat pocket can be a treasure trove of excitement on some airlines. I don’t mean left over surprises from other passengers, either!

Usually they are filled with reading material and a few other interesting bits and pieces. Let’s have a look at a typical flight in Club Europe on British Airways and see what we can find.

BA830 – London Heathrow to Dublin (LHR-DUB)
5 July 2017
Airbus A319 – G-EUOE
Seat: Club Europe 1A
Departure: 14:10 Arrival: 15:35

Cabin crew offer a hot towel to refresh yourself before flight which are always a bit like a lottery. Will it be barely warm or will it be like molten lava? Will it be slightly damp or Niagara Falls level wet? Exciting!

Afternoon Tea

Flights between 2pm and 5pm are designated as receiving an afternoon tea service on British Airways. This is a choice between finger sandwiches or a Ploughman’s Lunch. The latter is more substantial so I always go for that. I still miss the scones!

Pre-packaged bread should not be on the tray, it should be provided from the basket. A full bar service is offered and Champagne is available. This is proper Champagne from France and is something British Airways does quite well.

Club Europe Cabin

We will get to the mysteries of the seat pocket in a moment. When you sit in the bulkhead seat there is a sign referring to your life jacket and the seat belt.

People often put their feet on the bulkhead which marks up what is quite a nice cabin feature. It would be an idea to add to the life jacket and seat belt sign with a notice asking people to keep their feet off the bulkhead. Flip down screens show a moving map on the short flights such as that between London and Dublin. People enjoy seeing their route progress, altitude and so on, even if the display is quite an old version of the moving map.

Secrets of the Seat Pocket

British Airways always have a number of goodies in the seat pocket. In actual fact, they have some of the best in the business as far as I am concerned, so let’s have a look. First, we have the safety card which all airlines must have.

High Life is the monthly inflight magazine at BA and it usually has quite interesting content. It is a far better magazine than that on other airlines as it does not come across as pages of advertising. Passengers in Club Europe, Club World or First Class also have an additional magazine. Business Life is a bi monthly magazine for business class passengers. This is filled with interesting insight and articles for the corporate traveller. I quite like it. First passengers get First Life. Economy class passengers on British Airways need to pay for food and drink. The M&S Menu is included in the seat pocket just in case you want to choose from there. Finally, the sick bags – an absolute must on all flights!

Overall Thoughts

Good literature is important in a seat pocket as it provides something to read. Safety information and the sick bags are of course necessary and a good magazine is always a credit to an airline.

What is the best airline magazine you have read? Are they important in this day and age when people have personal devices now? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured image via British Airways.