Most of the time, people kill time during long flights by reading a book, catching an in-flight movie, listening to a podcast, or simply scrolling through their phone. Recently, however, a new kind of travel trend changed this. Called “rawdogging,” this rather weird trend has been propagated by the internet among young men, which involves simply sitting with one’s thoughts or looking out the window while avoiding all means of in-flight entertainment.
Recently, a YouTuber shared his experience of an 11-hour flight where the whole plane had to “rawdog” due to a blackout of the entertainment screens. For almost four hours on board, passengers could only view a map showing the remaining duration of the flight. Despite trying to reset the screens, there was a “total blackout.” He said hours five and six were the “please wait” stage of the situation. When they finally did come back on, all they showed was the airline’s logo. He also mentioned his neighbor’s reading light was “brighter than the sun” and made it tough to sleep.
While some passengers had to embrace rawdogging, others managed to stay entertained. YouTuber and his wife were prepared with books and downloaded movies. “We watched four episodes of House of the Dragon and then a slew of movies,” he said.
One user responded, “This happened on my Delta flight from Atlanta to Rome. 9 hour rawdog. Food was good tho.” Another posted, “That’s why I bring books on my flights. Or notebooks to write in. And I had a little light that was a lot dimmer than the plane reading lights that I could attach to my stuff.”.