The Hottest Trend In Air Travel Involves Sitting On The Plane And Doing Absolutely Nothing

Whenever I fly, I have to have something to do. I load up on tunes, on podcasts, and I cram in earbuds as soon as possible to avoid any, "So, are you from Harrisburg or just visiting?" small talk.

What I don't do is nothing but stare straight ahead for hours and hours like a psycho, but that's the biggest trend in air travel right now with dudes (this appears to be very much a dude thing) looking to "raw dog" flights.

Translation: they do nothing for the entire trip. Not even eat, sleep, or drink.

According to The New York Post, this trend has been credited to Idris Elba's character in the AppleTV series Hijacked, who has to sit on a flight from London to Dubai after it was — anyone? anyone? — hijacked.

Maybe that's an oversimplification of the plot, but that… that sounds terrible.

Raw Dogging A Flight Pushes Someone To Their Limits… Or So They Claim

Those who are into it see raw dogging as a way to push oneself to their mental and physical limits. More than anything that's an indication of how the bar for peoples' "physical limitations" has plummeted. It used to be that people ran ultra-marathons to do that, now they sit patiently on planes.

This is insane, but I get how this stuff works. We make all these technological advancements, but then people yearn for simpler times. That's why vinyl is as popular as it's ever been since the advent of the CD.

But who said, "Man, I miss the days of being bored out of my skull on an airplane?" At that point, why stop at planes? Give up all modern conveniences and just sit in the dark while churning butter like you're Amish.

I've got a flight in a couple of weeks, and I can assure you I will not be raw-dogging it. In fact, I might go the complete other direction just to spit in face of the raw dogging movement. I'm going to show up with music, books, a laptop, a tablet, and snacks. Hell, I might watch one movie on the screen in front of me and another on my phone. Maybe I'll be "that guy" and show up with a little guitar and a practice amp and take requests.

I will be doing so many activities to keep me occupied, but I will never raw dog a flight (not because I can't, but because I'd probably go insane).

Written by
Matt is a University of Central Florida graduate and a long-suffering Philadelphia Flyers fan living in Orlando, Florida. He can usually be heard playing guitar, shoe-horning obscure quotes from The Simpsons into conversations, or giving dissertations to captive audiences on why Iron Maiden is the greatest band of all time.