Raw-Dogging Flights Is the New Travel Trend on Social Media

Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad in this context related to travel.

It’s just the latest travel trend that has emerged on TikTok and it’s our job to keep you hip and up to date on such things.

To raw-dog is when an air traveler on a long-haul flight foregoes any entertainment whatsoever — no music, no downloaded movies, no books or magazines, no nothing – and just watches the screen of the little airplane tracker that shows their location.

That’s right.

Just the tracker. A bare bones experience. That’s why they call it a raw-dog, get it?

As in, “I’m about to raw-dog this 15-hour flight.”

It doesn’t sound very appealing, but at least by watching the in-flight tracker you always know where you are. And besides, who are we to be the influencer of new trends? We just report on them. We don’t set them.

“I have never seen so many people raw dogging a flight in my life,” travel TikToker Michelle wrote over a video that takes a wider look at the cabin and shows several seats in which the entertainment system is open to the map function. “This was a FIVE HOUR flight from NYC to SF.”

The trend and the term first gained popularity on Tik Tok earlier this spring. At least it’s better than eating a Tide pod. And fans of the practice say it gives them time to disconnect and just be with their own thoughts.

Just think. At any age you can be a trendsetter and a raw-dogger on flights.