Is it possible to relax on a plane these days, even with a fancy neck cushion? Photo / Getty Images
Tim Roxborogh on the joys of moaning about your holiday.
Last time I moved house I found three dust-covered neck cushions under my bed. Somehow, on three separate occasions over the years, I'd been at an airport and thought, "I guess I'd better buy a neck cushion". And then on
three separate other occasions, I decided to store said neck cushion under the bed. It was liberating to finally throw them out.
As in, not only should I have never kept – and forgotten I was keeping – them under the bed, I never should have bought them in the first place. It took three rounds to figure it out, but eventually I learned what I now know to be true: neck cushions (as sold in countless airports around the world) hug your neck like a mutant itchy wheat pack, while positioning your head and torso as if you're recovering from a horse-riding accident. All this in the apparent aid of sleep while flying.
I hate them. I think I must have always hated them, but the neck cushion's ubiquity as a traveller's essential made me think they must be just that: essential. Maybe my neck is the wrong shape, but wearing a neck cushion on a plane generally feels about as relaxing as being gently strangled. Blame may also be laid at my somewhat larger than average Adam's apple; nothing to brag about I might add, but who knows?
I've tried every angle, from the conventional gap-in-the-front method, to the gap-in-the-back to prevent your head falling forward, to the rambunctious side-on position. One of my now thrown-out neck cushions was even a Star Wars-themed one, presumably bought in the hope that my fan-ship of George Lucas would be passed through to the comfort level of the cushion. This oddly proved not to be the case.
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