The Airline Barf Bag To Celebrate Its 75th Birthday

Airlines long ago did away with free meals in economy class. More recently, the airline magazine died a quiet but lamented death due to COVID. Even seatback video screens are disappearing at many airlines, replaced by the ubiquitous phone or iPad carried by today’s travelers.

One seatback standard may remain with us for the foreseeable future. That is the humble airline sickness bag, AKA airsick bag, airsickness bag, emesis bag, sick bag, barf bag, vomit bag, disposal bag, waste bag, doggie bag or motion sickness bag.

The bags have long served as a form of branding for the airlines. In addition to becoming a collectible like so many other air mementoes, they can be a source of hope for the passenger. One of my favorites from my modest collection is the “In a while you will be fine” bag from Norwegian Airlines.

So it’s no surprise the global vomit bag market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.5% from 2022 to 2030. No, barf bag sales growth isn’t driven by disgust at worsening airline service. It’s from increasing demand from medical, commercial, and industrial applications, as well as COVID-driven awareness about hygiene and sanitation.

The humble air sickness bag has even proved a palette for designer creativity. In 2011 a British artist created a barf bag to commemorate the royal wedding of William and Kate. Other promotional sick bags have been distributed at horror movies and at the Disgusting Food Museum.

Today, millions of travelers are returning to the skies. And a certain percentage will be reaching into the seat pocket for a bag before they lose their lunch.

Flights are smoother now, with the turbofan engines and pressurized cabins today’s travelers take for granted. But fear of flying, motion sickness and turbulence still happen. And just as today’s aircraft are far more advanced than their predecessors, today’s plastic-lined paper or all-plastic barf bags which can hold liquids, are a big improvement over brown paper bags, boxes, or last-resort squeegee-mops.

Before the jet age arrived in the late 1950’s, flying could be a bumpy, smelly experience. Propellor planes like the DC-3 and DC-6 tended to shake more and fly as low as 5,000-10,000 feet, where there was often more turbulence than at the 30,000-foot altitude of today’s jets. Air quality could also be literally nauseating, as smells of gas and oil were likely to waft into the cabin.

Flying was also much more dangerous in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Each year would see five or six major air disasters, often resulting in the death of all on board. All this led to fear, anxiety and other psychological discomfort that could result in airsickness.

The man who captured the moment (and kept many a cabin clean) was Gilmore T. Schjeldahl, a largely self-taught American inventor who did not graduate from high school or college. He ended up receiving 16 patents (as well as a Bronze Star at the Battle of the Bulge) and founded five companies. His expertise in resins and polymers not only led to bread being sealed in plastic bags, but to the 1960 launch of the first communications satellite, the balloon-based Echo 1.

Millions of airsick travelers have Schjeldahl to thank for his patented 1949 invention, the plastic-lined air sickness bag. While earlier efforts were made from waxed paper or card stock, the bag Schjeldahl developed, originally for Northwest Orient Airlines , were thermoplastic, or plastic on paper. The bag also folded neatly, fit nicely into the seatback, and let you seal its contents.

Since then, millions of barf bags have kept passengers and planes clean. Thermoplastic bags also provide just-in-case psychological back-up, not just in planes, but in boats, buses, hospitals and movie theatres showing gore.

Because the bags are “free” and easily lifted, something of a collector’s marketplace has developed. In 2012, the Guinness Book of World Records certified Niek Vermeulen of the Netherlands as the champion vomit bag collector. Vermeulen purloined 6,290 of the bags from 1,191 airlines in nearly 200 countries.

If you decide to dip your toe into barf bag collecting, don’t expect to get rich. An unused Aeroflot barf bag was recently$12.09 on eBay. Etsy offers a promotional vomit bag handed out at screenings of the 1972 horror movie Mark of the Devil. The bag claims the flick is “guaranteed to upset your stomach” and it was the first recipient of the non-existent “V for Violence” rating. Considering its provenance, the bag is a bargain at a mere $5.

Some people believe their barf bag collectibles are worth more, like this ‘matched’ set of bags from four Indian airlines. The colorful bags, from Jet, Indigo, Spice and India Airlines, are on eBay for $172. eBay also some value bags, like this $3 plain vanilla all-white model supposedly swiped from Allegiant.

But the increasing number of generic air sickness bags threatens to kill interest in acquiring a collection. Why would try a different airline, just to pick up yet another unmarked bag? Going generic may limit petty theft, like hotels no longer putting their names on coat hangers. But it makes each airline just a little less distinctive.