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Louise Thomas

Editor

One of the strangest travel trends of the year has taken an unexpected twist into the virtual world, with sky-high “rawdogging” now something to enjoy – or endure – at home.

The strange viral craze isn’t related to the mile-high club but instead is an odd endurance challenge that requires passengers to sit in silence, without any screens, books or distractions of any kind (and for purists, that includes no meals or snacks) during flights.

But in a turn of events nobody asked for, now you can “rawdog” a flight without even needing to step foot on a plane with the launch of the Rawdog Simulator game.

And it turns out, it’s quiet addictive.

The browser-based game, which appears to be heavily satirical, sees players book a flight on the fictional Rawdog Airlines between New York and Singapore, filling in your name for the ticket, choosing your seat (only one is available) and navigating an attempt to upsell travel insurance – which includes coverage for “loss of aura”.

If you’re playing on an iPhone, you’re able to add a fake boarding pass to the Apple Wallet for the flight RD420.

Players are then shown a video of their character boarding the packed flight, with the captain telling the cabin that those flying should make sure “phones, laptops and sources of dopamine are safely stowed away” –warning that if they look away from the screen in front of them, they will be removed from the flight.

The game begins properly when the character is sat in the seat staring at the screen in front of them, at which point you’re prompted to allow game access to the camera on your phone or computer so it can track your eyes.

From then on, players stare at the screen, with the camera picking up when the virtual rawdogging is interrupted and eyes move away from the screen to flush out cheating – giving a five-second warning to “get back to rawdogging” before it’s game over.

The Independent has attempted to contact the makers of the came for comment.

The majority of the online responses to the game have beena mix of amusement and bemusement, with one user on Reddit writing: “I spit out my coffee when I scrolled past this”.

Another wrote: “why does this even exist”.

On TikTok, one comment said: “This can’t be real”.

The origins of rawdogging flights is unclear, but a Seinfeld episode from 1997 shows an early example, when Elaine Benes (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus) flies with her boyfriend for 22 hours, during which he plans to “sit there, staring at the back of the seat”.

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