SkyRest Travel Pillow: A Blue Inflatable Boulder That You Faceplant Into for 8 Hours While Your Seatmate Questions Reality

Imagine you're on a plane. You've found your seat. You've stowed your bag. You're settling in for a red-eye. The person next to you reaches into their carry-on and pulls out a deflated blue vinyl sack. You think: "Rain jacket? Laundry bag?" Then they begin inflating it. By mouth. On an airplane. Next to you.

The sack expands. And expands. And EXPANDS. It grows to the size of a beach ball. Then larger. Then the size of a small ottoman. They place it on the tray table. It occupies the ENTIRE tray table. It spills over the edges. It extends into your personal space. It is a blue inflatable boulder that has materialized between you and the person who was, until thirty seconds ago, a normal airplane passenger.

Then they lean forward and press their face into it. They are now faceplanting into a blue boulder on an airplane tray table. Their arms dangle at their sides. Their face is buried. They are motionless. They look like a person who has been knocked unconscious by a giant blueberry. They look like an astronaut whose helmet inflated in the wrong direction. They look like a hostage in the world's softest kidnapping.

This is the SkyRest Travel Pillow, and it costs $30.

The Vision: Sleep on a Plane (by Becoming Part of the Furniture)

The SkyRest's concept is that leaning forward onto a cushioned surface — face down, chest resting against the pillow — is more comfortable for airplane sleeping than the traditional alternatives (neck pillow, lean against window, slump forward chin-on-chest). This is... possibly true. Face-down sleeping does work for some people. Massage therapists use face cradles. Chiropractors use face rests.

The difference is that a massage table is private and an airplane seat is not private. A massage table has a face hole. The SkyRest has your face pressed against an inflatable vinyl sack that you inflated with your own breath — your mouth breath, 20,000 feet in the air, recycled cabin air, inflated into a vinyl vessel that now contains your exhaled lung air plus whatever aerosolized particles were in the plane's ventilation system.

The pillow also blocks the aisle arm of the tray table, making it impossible for the flight attendant to pass a drink or meal. The food cart cannot navigate past a tray table with a blue boulder on it. The flight attendant must either wake you — tapping the shoulder of a person whose face is buried in an inflatable — or skip you. Most skip you. You sleep through dinner. You saved $30 on a pillow and lost $12 in airline food, which means the pillow's effective cost is $42 if you value reheated chicken.

The Glorious User Experience

Chris from Seat 14B — ★☆☆☆☆

"The person in 14A inflated the SkyRest. I watched it grow. It kept growing. I was in a window seat and this expanding blue mass was approaching me like a very slow, very soft avalanche. When fully inflated, the pillow occupied approximately 40% of my personal space. My seatmate's face was now six inches from my shoulder, pressed into a vinyl balloon, breathing audibly through the material. I was trapped between a window and a breathing boulder. Five hours. Five hours of a breathing boulder. One star."

Jen from Seat 22F — ★☆☆☆☆

"I inflated the SkyRest by mouth. On a plane. In public. Do you know how long it takes to inflate a pillow the size of a small dog by mouth? Approximately four minutes of sustained blowing. My seatmate watched the entire inflation with the expression of someone documenting evidence. The inflation ceremony is the SkyRest's first test: can you blow air into a vinyl sack for four straight minutes while maintaining eye contact with a stranger who thinks you've lost your mind? One star."

Mike from Seat 8C (Aisle) — ★☆☆☆☆

"My seatmate used a SkyRest. The pillow extended past the tray table into the aisle space. The flight attendant with the drink cart arrived. She looked at the pillow. She looked at the aisle. She looked at me. She leaned over the pillow — OVER the blue boulder — to hand me a ginger ale. She did this with the practiced grace of someone who has navigated around objects on airplanes before, but her expression suggested this was a new object. One star."

Sarah from Seat 31A — ★☆☆☆☆