So, have you been on a long flight lately? Or even anywhere near a busy airport? These days, that’s like asking if you’ve spent time in a medieval torture chamber or had a recurring nightmare come alive.
What with our two monopolized airlines fighting with each other to see who can peeve customers off the most through rising prices, shrinking seats and legroom, scheduling debacles and overworked staff it really does seem that the major airlines’ motto is: “We’re not happy until you’re not happy”.
Speaking of nightmares, our next-door neighbours were just telling us about their ‘little’ trip to Vancouver -. In the fairly recent past, members of our own fam-damily foursome have made that flight many many times over the past years on account of the Rotten Kid, the daughter one, was on and off living there, going to university there, and performing there and for the most part it was a fairly straightforward experience of typical air travel. You know, your expected parking hassles, claustrophobic lineups, ticket mix-ups, full carry-on luggage bin battles, and seats built for an 8-year-old child, all for a price that was 30 per cent higher than it was last time you flew. And you flew two weeks ago.
But our oft-travelled neighbours described how what should been a routine one-hour flight from the coast turned into a full-day ordeal of frustration and tribulation involving airline computer glitches, cancelled flights, lost luggage, and stupefyingly boring marathon sessions sitting immobile in surprisingly uncomfortable airport seats obviously designed by deranged sadists. Talk about flight rawdogging!
Pardon? – you may be saying. Flight rawdogging?? Is that something new that the airlines have come up with to make your travel experience even more excruciating than it already is? Well, the answer, surprisingly, is no. The latest travel trend called “flight rawdogging” has been created by passengers themselves. Albeit not entirely sane passengers, as you will soon see.
Although the term “rawdogging” (which I hadn’t heard of until yesterday) apparently has a much racier original context, according to an article in Travel Week magazine ‘flight rawdogging’ is the furthest thing from ‘racy’. But it’s all the rage, especially with a small number of, shall we say, unique travelers who got the idea from TikTok and other social media swamps (my words).
The latest craze particularly among males (of course) requires people to “sit through a long-haul flight with zero distractions or forms of entertainment.” No phones, movies, music, books or conversation. Oh, and no sleep, no food, and no water. (And no brains??) And we’re talking 7 to 11 hour flights. Say what??
So a guy sits like a zombie for an entire flight and then posts a photo or video on social media of his ‘incredible accomplishment’. Here’s an actual TikTok post: “Wow! I just rawdogged a 7 hour flight, new personal best. The power of my mind knows no bounds.” Really?? Really.
By now, you are no doubt slowly shaking your head with incredulity around the depths of lame stupidity to which some people (mostly men) will stoop. Allegedly, there is a much loftier reason for flight rawdogging, other than getting your stupid face on TikTok.
Some R-doggers claim it’s a form of meditation, resulting in a ‘spiritual experience’ and that it ‘changes you’. Well, of course it changes you – have you ever heard of deep vein thrombosis? Aside from psychological damage that experts warn about for rawdoggers, airplane sitting can cause blood clots in the legs that can result in a heart attack. Go ahead – Tik your cardiac arrest on Tok, Mr. Smartypants Dogger!
Nope. But I wouldn’t mind a rawdogger sitting beside me. At least one of might be able to sleep.
Harley Hay is a Red Deer author and filmmaker. Reach out to Harley with any thoughts or ideas at harleyhay99@gmail.com.
