Took airline plane blanket by accident; didn't realize it was forbidden. What should I do?

You should probably just keep it and move on. Is this morally correct? Probably not. But life isn’t fair.

The damage that you have done to the airline is rather neglegible. I’ve intentionally (assuming they’d throw them away after one use anyway just like they throw away perfectly good food) taken those blankets with me for about 25 years before realizing that they actually want them back. Well guess what, I’ve not gone to jail, nobody (not even cabin crew watching me openly taking the blankets off the plane) ever told me to stop stealing their stuff, and none of the airlines I’ve travelled with has gone bankrupt. So that’s that.

On the other hand, those blankets are — despite being ultra low-cost — of a surprisingly good quality with very desirable properties that makes the one you took away a most valuable possession of yours. If nothing else, it’s quite warm and comfortable, and fire retardant, something you can’t say about any blanket that you can buy in a store.

If your bad conscience wouldn’t allow you to keep the blanket, you can just hand it back to cabin crew without comment (so it’s less embarrassing) on your next flight. That will probably be the only practical way of getting rid of the blanket.

I very much doubt the airline would like to deal with the excessive cost of returning a mostly worthless item otherwise, the effort outweights the gains.
If you call them, the phone operator will probably tell you to just keep it (and you should be prepared that the operator laughs at you). Not only does the guy on the phone line care crap, but also it’s much better in the company’s point of view to let you do free advertising (carrying a blanket with the airline’s logo) than have someone whom they’re actually paying to do something useful waste 15 minutes of his time to reclaim a mostly worthless item.
As long as not every passenger steals the blanket (and the seat!) that’s not a real problem, even more so as the maximum number of blankets that can be stolen is limited.

One way you can help the industry, the environment, and potentially this specific airline is to bring this with you as part of your travel kit.

So when the attendants come around, passing out blankets, instead refuse and pull out your own. This will benefit you also as not all flights have this luxury, or even enough blankets.

Both my wife and I carry blankets (and often pillows) in our carry on bags even for relatively short domestic US flights. It just makes life more comfortable.

Look, first of all, they will not even notice that, they will not wonder, they have tons of extra blankets available in their warehouses, a lot of passengers everyday take small plane stuff with them like blankets and the airlines are not feeling frustrated about that, as the cost of sanitizing a blanket would be slight less than the cost of using a new one.

On the other hand, YES this is “somehow” considered as stealing, this consideration is not coming from the airline but from the standards of the human manners, what to do the best, give it to any homeless person or keep it with you till the next flight and leave it in the plane (but please don’t take the new one with you), whatever you will decide do, just leave the airline a gentle email to relieve any guilt from your shoulders, and believe me they will not even pay an attention to that.

The simple fact is that it is their property, and returning it is the right thing to do. That is the only moral burden you have to resolve.

This is independent of the supposed cost on their end. The person you contact will not have to work an extra 15 minutes, because of you.

Options

email [email protected] and wait for answer.

Drop it off at a ticket or baggage claim office, if you will be flying soon.

Or the quickest is to mail the blanket to:

Headquarters North America
Aer Lingus
300 Jericho Quadrangle, Suite 130
Jericho, NY 11753

Or find your country here:

Or https://www.aerlingus.com/support/contact-us/#/tab-0-ireland

Mailing it involves some time and cost to you, but zero frustration. It does not require interactions with customer support people, who won’t be able to help.

I’ve been in this position myself: I accidentally took with me a small toy from a clothing store and didn’t realise it until much much later.

I had intended to pay for it but my friends took a very long time shopping and at some point I forgot I had it in my hand and unconciously tucked it into a pocket. There was no security tag, no loss prevention took notice (or they didn’t stop me), so I “got away”.

I didn’t notice until some days later that it was in my pocket. I was very far from the original store, they didn’t have locations in my city, so it wasn’t feasible to return in person. Returning it via post would have cost more than it was worth.

I came to view it as a simple mistake, not a theft. I forgave myself and moved on. This is what I recommend for you. Life happens, small mistakes occur, c’est la vie. Businesses budget indirectly for this sort of thing.

However, if you can’t forgive yourself, call the airline. They’ll probably tell you to keep it.

A relatively simple solution: the next time you are at the airport for any reason, bring the blanket to an Aer Lingus ticket agent, say “I accidentally took this off the plane”, hand it to them, and walk away.

[Edited to add: @Xen2050 points out that airports are sufficiently paranoid environments that you shouldn’t just drop the blanket and walk away — it would be a lot less threatening to do something like walk up to the ticket agent with the blanket in your hands and say “I accidentally took this off the plane, can you please take care of it for me?”]

Relatively low admin overhead, you get to clear your conscience by getting the blanket back to the airline, and the ticket agent almost certainly can figure out the right way to get the blanket back into circulation.

Whether it takes a week or a month or several months the blanket is still equally valuable to the airline, after all.

Sorry if this is a silly question, I just kind of panicked

This is not a silly question.

This is also not a question about blankets, but about how to work out these situations where you did something wrong and then it “hits you” later, when it’s much too late to change it. You are now carrying it around in your head, and that is the problem you have to solve.

I would not follow any suggestion that tells you to just forget about it. This does, usually, not work. The fact that you posted a question here on TSE means that it is very important to you, it is obviously nagging at your moral backbone, so to speak, and it will not go away.

Fortunately, in this case, you can do this quite easily as the entity you took the item from is still around. I would, in your case, simply call them or, if you wish to save them some time, write them a mail through their public contact address, shortly tell them the situation and ask them if they want the blanket back.

“After my flight XYZ I took the blanket with me at the end of the flight, and saw the sticker that tells us not to remove it from the plane too late. Do you wish me to return it to you? If so, please let me know how I can do that.”

No need to bother with explanations why you took it.

This will happen:

• You got it out of your system. From thinking about it as theft, and eternally kicking it around in your mind, you turned it into a slightly embarrassing nuisance. This is the first and foremost intended result of your call/mail.
• They may tell you that it’s not a biggy, that this happens all the time and that you can just keep it. Problem solved. If you feel better now, you can actually keep it; or if seeing it reminds you of that embarrassment all the time, give it away or throw it away.
• Or they may tell you to return it. I am pretty sure they will not set a deadline. But they may tell you just to deposit it when you happen to fly with them again. Then just do that, and be done with it.

You will most certainly not have to pay a fine or go to jail for it.

We live in a strange world where manufactured goods (like blankets) are very cheap, and people’s time is very expensive. Our moral (and legal) codes haven’t caught up with this: so we feel bad at taking a blanket from an airline, but we don’t feel bad about taking 15 minutes of their employees’ time. But the 15 minutes costs the airline much more than the blanket. Don’t compound your error by taking both.

Other then flying Aer Lingus again and leaving the blanket on board, 99.4% the airline has no procedure or ability to take it back.

If this was truly an oversight, forget about it. If the blanket is somewhat nice, use it. No sense it going to waste.

BTW, they really, really don’t want people taking things but, they know people do and it’s not worth bothering about. I’ve never seen an FA look for any missing item.

To avoid any lingering feelings of guilt, you can call the airline and ask them what they’d like you to do with the blanket. Explain that you took it by mistake because you were not fully alert when you left the aircraft.

Most likely, they’ll tell you to keep it, because it would cost more for them to receive it in the mail and return it to the blanket pool than it would simply to buy a new blanket. But if you have their explicit instructions to keep it then you won’t have to worry about anything. Furthermore, in the (less likely) event that they do ask you to send it back, you can send it back, which will also relieve you of any lingering guilt.

You can find out how to get in touch with them at https://www.aerlingus.com/support/contact-us.

Or should I just forget about it, having learned my lesson?

Just forget about it. No one is going to come after you for stealing a 2-euro blanket. Keep it as a souvenir and don’t steal any in the future.