The best passengers could do was flick their screens to a map
How do you pass the time on a long flight? Do you prefer reading a book, watching an in-flight movie, listening to a podcast, or browsing your phone? Recently, a new trend has emerged that eliminates all these options. Welcome to “rawdogging,” but not in the way you might think. This unusual craze began with young men on the internet who opted to sit with their thoughts or gaze out the window for the entire flight, avoiding any form of in-flight entertainment. Recently, a YouTuber reported that an entire aircraft had to “rawdog” during an 11-hour flight when the entertainment screens shut off.
The best passengers could do was flick their screens to a map showing the remaining flight time. Despite attempts to reset the screens, the YouTuber described a “total blackout” about four hours into the journey. He couldn’t even sleep because a fellow passenger was using a bright reading light.
In his video, he showed many passengers staring at blank screens with a “please wait” message, describing hours five and six as the “please wait” part of the ordeal. After the screens were reset, they displayed only the airline’s logo for a few hours. He noted that his neighbor’s reading light was “brighter than the sun” as he tried to sleep.
While some passengers had no choice but to rawdog their journey, others had activities to keep them occupied. The YouTuber and his wife were spared from rawdogging along with everyone else, as they had packed books and downloaded movies. In a comment, he mentioned that they “watched four episodes of House of the Dragon and then a slew of movies.”
“Thats 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,” a user wrote in the comments.
“Never depend on the airlines to do anything, on time , or within their own terms of service. They are not accountible unless you sue or complain afterwards. It ain’t getting fixed or compensated while in route. In fact it might get you “labelled” and banned from future flights,” another user wrote.
“This happened on my delta flight from Atlanta to Rome. 9 hour rawdog. Food was good tho,” the third user wrote.
