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Get Your Stuff Out Of Seatback Pocket Pronto!

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CaptJax

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 3, 2006
Posts
310
Get your stuff out of the airline seatback pocket pronto!
Posted by: Brad Tuttle, Thursday, Aug 27, 2009, 3:49 PM

The airline seatback pocket may not be spacious, but it has at least traditionally been a place to stash your magazine or water bottle while you snooze. Not anymore.

The FAA has decreed that no passenger personal items whatsoever are allowed in the seatback pocket, as Joe Sharkey's "On the Road" column in the New York Times reported. The only things that are supposed to be in the seatback sleeve are in-flight magazines, safety brochures, the air-sickness bag, or other official material approved of by the airline.

The ban on personal items in seatback pockets is news to a lot of passengers, and news to a lot of airlines as well. Airline spokespeople have said that they had no idea there was such a ban, and that passengers have always been allowed to make use of the seatbacks.

So what's this really all about? As Sharkey's column points out, there is probably some concern that the recent introduction of baggage fees has pushed passengers to carry more items onto the plane and stuff them wherever they can, including the seatback pocket. To some extent, flight crews must also like the ban. They probably don't want the hassle of telling passengers to keep their stuff out of the seatback. But if no personal items go into the seatback pockets, cleaning the pockets out after every flight just got a whole lot easier for the crew.

How, and how often, will this ban be enforced? It's hard to tell. If a flight attendant has recently told you that personal items in the seatback are a no-no, let us know.
 
Airline passengers are getting close to being treated as badly as airline employees.
 
I always joking say atleast we're getting paid, while the pax are paying for their wonderful experience.

The more I think about it, the joke may be on me.
 
I could possibly see in the not so distant future that seatback pockets as we know it may be eliminated altogether. Safety instructions, fluffy magazines with route maps, and catalogs of useless crap to buy will be incorporated into a multilingual version on a personal IFE screen. Airlines would no longer have to print thousands of magazines a month and can dodge the seat back issue entirely. There may just be a small flat pocket to hold a sick-sack and possibly a hard copy safety card.
 
How accurate is weight and balance with 100lb carry-ons being stuffed into overheads? Hook little strain guages to warning lights that tell you when the max bin weight has been reached.
 
Airline passengers are getting close to being treated as badly as airline employees.


Yeah, because us airline employees have it so bad...... It is terrible getting 100k+ per year and working half a month or less.... geez, how dare they.
 
Become your own seatback

The FAA has decreed that no passenger personal items whatsoever are allowed in the seatback pocket, as Joe Sharkey's "On the Road" column in the New York Times reported.

In other news, clothing stores are reporting a heavy demand for extra-large cargo pants and "Captain Kangaroo" jackets....:p
 
Last time I put something in the seatback pocket (an MP3 player) while on a DH, I left it. Since then I have been avoiding the SBP.
 

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