As to the first part- I know that and I didn't mention it specifically on purpose. This is an imaginary town in the US, and I didn't want to have to research and add in another dimension to the cultural differences because although I know what different parts of the US are like (having lived in different regions) I wanted to focus on the general differences between the two countries and not get bogged down on details. This is supposed to be fun, for both me and the readers.

As for the time the story took place, even though the Harry Potter world is supposed to be in 1995, there are a lot of differences in the fandom perceptions of when it can take place- a lot of people write the books as taking place in 2005. In any case, I remember little monitors being in planes around 2000, so I figured that if Harry's a 5th year, this story takes place around 2000. If I was a year or two early, I didn't think that it would matter that much that anyone would bother noticing.

When I was a kid, and I had a blanket, the flight attendants didn't ask me to place it under the blanket, from what I can remember. Maybe since the flight attendant was the one doing it, she should have made sure that it was, or maybe since she was the one responsible for that area she knew that Harry had his safety belt on so it was okay. I don't know. I might change it, but I might not.

I think the safety flight talk WAS in the chapter. I wouldn't have left that out unless you're talking about the second flight or something, and I didn't want to repeat the whole thing in real time because that would have been boring, so I alluded to it.