What Does ‘Raw-Dogging’ a Flight Mean? All About the Viral Travel Trend

For most travelers, a long flight means browsing the on-demand movie offerings, binge-watching Netflix on their phone, or just listening to a podcast.

Not so for “raw-doggers.”

A new TikTok trend sees plane passengers boasting about enduring an entire flight without any form of entertainment or distraction: no phone, no tv, no books, no music. Some even forgo the free snacks.

“Just raw-dogged a 7-hour flight (new personal best),” a U.K.-based DJ named Wudini announced in a video posted June 4 that now has more than 13 million views. “No headphones, no movie, no water, nothing.”

Numerous other TikTokers have been documenting their activity-free flights for the past several months. “My beige flag is that I raw dog flights,” wrote Veronica Skaia in January. “No headphones. No movies. I just stare into the abyss for hours and watch the little gps plane.”

Australian musician Torren Foot also got in on the trend, writing on Tuesday, June 25, “Just raw dogged it, 15hr flight to Melbourne, no music, no movies, just flight map (I counted to 1 million twice).” 

A TikTok user named Michelle took to the social media platform to comment on how few of her fellow passengers seemed to be watching anything other than the flight map during a five-hour trip from New York to San Francisco. 

“I have never seen so many people raw-dogging a flight in my life,” she wrote. “Literally just staring straight ahead the entire time?”

Another TikToker who goes by West shared in May that he’d “successfully completed” a seven-hour flight viewing only the flight maps.

“Anyone else bareback flights?” he wondered in the accompanying caption, seemingly introducing some new borrowed jargon for the movement.

“I’ve got DMs on Instagram like, ‘Bro, you need to teach us how to bareback flights,’” West told GQ.

“I got sick of watching the same movies,” he added, comparing the quiet flying style to meditation. “Visually, you are kind of impaired. You only get to look at the seat in front of you, to your right or left if you’re at the window. All you hear is that drumming sound of the engine. It’s just white noise.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

The trend prompted some social media users to reminisce about a memorable TV character who was an early adopter of raw-dogging flights: David Puddy, Elaine Benes’ on-and-off beau on Seinfeld. 

In the season 9 episode “The Butter Shave,” Puddy (Patrick Warburton) irritated Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) by refusing her offer of something to read while flying home from a European vacation, opting instead to simply stare straight ahead.

“Respectfully, you are not ‘rawdogging’ if you watch the flight map,” read one post on X (formerly Twitter). “Puddy was staring at the back of the seat in front of him. man up.”