An airsickness bag is a small bag commonly provided to passengers on board airplanes and boats to collect and contain vomit in the event of motion sickness

Motion sickness

Motion sickness or kinetosis, also known as travel sickness, is a condition in which a disagreement exists between visually perceived movement and the vestibular system's sense of movement...

. Hovercraft

Hovercraft

A hovercraft is a craft capable of traveling over surfaces while supported by a cushion of slow moving, high-pressure air which is ejected against the surface below and contained within a "skirt." Although supported by air, a hovercraft is not considered an aircraft.Hovercraft are used throughout...

-ferry operators and even train

Train

A train is a connected series of vehicles for rail transport that move along a track to transport cargo or passengers from one place to another place. The track usually consists of two rails, but might also be a monorail or maglev guideway.Propulsion for the train is provided by a separate...

 companies have also been known to supply bags. Pregnant

Pregnancy

Pregnancy refers to the fertilization and development of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, in a woman's uterus. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets...

 women with morning sickness

Morning sickness

Morning sickness, also called nausea gravidarum, nausea, vomiting of pregnancy , or pregnancy sickness is a condition that affects more than half of all pregnant women. Related to increased oestrogen levels, a similar form of nausea is also seen in some women who use hormonal contraception or...

 and travelers who know they are prone to motion sickness will sometimes bring their own bags.

The plastic-lined airsickness bag was created by inventor Gilmore Schjeldahl

Gilmore Schjeldahl

Gilmore Tilmen Schjeldahl was an American businessman and inventor in plastics, adhesives, and circuitry. He was awarded 16 US patents and may be best known for inventing the plastic-lined airsickness bag....

 for Northwest Orient Airlines in 1949. Previously bags had been made from waxed paper or card. Modern bags are still mainly made from plastic-lined paper, but a significant proportion are now made completely from plastic.

Collecting

Among the collectors of aeronautical memorabilia there is a sub-culture of sickness-bag aficionados. The Guinness Book Of Records recognises Dutchman

Dutch people

The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...

 Niek Vermeulen as the world record holder for the number of different bags (5468 as of 26 March 2008).

In 2004, Virgin Atlantic issued a limited edition set of half a million bags in collaboration with designer Oz Dean of 'forcefeed:swede'. Oz had conceived and run an online gallery of sick bags since 2000 under the project name "Design for Chunks". It challenged designers to illustrate the usually dull medium of the sick bag, as opposed to t shirts or splash pages

Splash screen

A splash screen is an image that appears while a game or program is loading. It may also be used to describe an introduction page on a website. Splash screens sometimes do not cover the entire screen, but only a rectangle near the center...

 which were the standard challenges at the time.

Although the project achieved cult status in a short time amongst the design community, Dean felt that it had run its course and closed it down in 2003. With the offer of doing the project for real (from Virgin Atlantic) "DFC" was opened up again, in 2004, with the strapline "This time it's real !" The printed bags were intended to be on the global fleet of planes for 6 months but only lasted 3, with people walking through the aisles collecting the sets. The project divided opinion and this came as no surprise to Virgin Atlantic which is intentionally the more offbeat airline company in comparison to their traditional rivals, British Airways. The whole set of 20 finalists designs as a framed piece can be found in the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse at Heathrow, UK or online at the archived website.

Virgin Atlantic released another 4 bags promoting the Star Wars

Star Wars

Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...

 movie Episode III: Revenge of the Sith shortly after the "Design for Chunks" project.

Alternative uses

The development of larger aircraft and advances in design have reduced the occurrence of air sickness. This has led to bags being given a secondary use as general purpose waterproof waste containers which is often reflected in the labelling of the bag and instructional diagrams. Another common use is that of a photographic mailing envelope (especially Australia). Airlines have also printed bags to serve as card game scoresheets and Continental Airlines

Continental Airlines

Continental Airlines was a major American airline now merged with United Airlines. On May 3, 2010, Continental Airlines, Inc. and UAL, Inc. announced a merger via a stock swap, and on October 1, 2010, the merger closed and UAL changed its name to United Continental Holdings, Inc...

 once suggested that they be used as doggy bag

Doggy Bag

* denotes co-producer.Notes*Track 1, "We Want Weezy " features uncredited vocals by Jermaine Dupri.*Track 2, "Take Ya Home" features uncredited vocals by Aaliyah Minter and Khim Davis.*Track 9, "Crazy" features uncredited vocals by Sleepy Brown....

s for airline food

Airline meal

An airline meal or in-flight meal is a meal served to passengers on board a commercial airliner. These meals are prepared by airline catering services.The first kitchens preparing meals in-flight were established by United Airlines in 1936....

. Airsick bags are sometimes used as "seat occupied" cards to indicate that a passenger in a seat prior to a layover

Layover

In transportation, a layover, also known as lays over or stopover, is some form of a break between parts of a single trip.-In mass transit:...

 will return for the next leg of the plane's flight plan. In 2010, Spirit Airlines

Spirit Airlines

Spirit Airlines is a United States ultra low-cost carrier operating scheduled flights throughout the Americas. The airline is headquartered in Miramar, Florida, in the Miami metropolitan area. Spirit currently maintains a base in Fort Lauderdale, Florida...

 began selling advertising space on its air sickness bags.
Some airlines have exhibited a certain sense of humor in designing their airsickness bags. For a short time, for example, the German carrier Hapag-Lloyd Express (now TUIfly

TUIfly

TUIfly Vermarktungs GmbH is an airline based at Hannover Airport in Langenhagen, Lower Saxony, Germany. The airline offers both charter and scheduled low-cost flights. About 60% of all seats are sold directly, 30% as a part of a TUI holiday package and 10% by other agencies...

) had bags that had stated "Thank you for your criticism!". The defunct ATA Airlines

ATA Airlines

ATA Airlines, Inc., formerly known as American Trans Air, was an American low-cost scheduled service and charter airline based in Indianapolis, Indiana. ATA operated scheduled passenger flights throughout the US mainland and Hawaii, as well as military and commercial charter flights around the world...

 used airsickness bags that had "Occupied" on them. Delta Air Lines

Delta Air Lines

Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a major airline based in the United States and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The airline operates an extensive domestic and international network serving all continents except Antarctica. Delta and its subsidiaries operate over 4,000 flights every day...

has "Feel Better?" printed on the bag.