TikTok has, over the years, given birth to an endless number of "hacks" and "tips" for improving one's flight and travel experience that range from useful to downright dangerous.
Some have to do with finding the best deals for a ticket that would otherwise cost thousands while others reveal "secret buttons" for activating an armrest and encourage outright bribery by giving flight attendants a gift card. A video of a prankster cooking shrimp and grits in a plane bathroom received over a million TikTok views and set off an entire wave of people trying it for themselves despite the obvious safety concerns around plugging portable batteries into the lavatory's outlets.
Related: Another questionable and slightly gross 'travel hack' is going viral on TikTok
Last month, a TikTok video in which an influencer named Lexi Rivera buckles a plane's seatbelt around her ankles instead of her waist gathered more than 20 million views and set off another surge of people who have been trying it for themselves.
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'Turbulence can come without notice and super hard...'
Rivera positioned it as a "comfier" way to travel and the internet quickly dubbed it the "ankle-seatbelt hack." One follower who filmed her own video of this type of sitting called it "the best travel hack ever."
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But Jay Robert, a former Emirates flight attendant who has recently been sharing travel stories and debunking flying myths through his "A Fly Guy" accounts, told the Daily Mail that this type of hack is not just a "harmless travel tip" but a very dangerous suggestion.
"This dangerous advice is the last thing we want to go viral," Robert told the news outlet. "I think most cabin crew, myself included, if we saw you sleeping soundly like this and the seatbelt sign was on, we would wake you up and tell you to wear the seatbelt properly. Turbulence isn't a joke and can come without notice and can come super hard."
Robert further said that, if turbulence hits and the passenger is thrust suddenly further, improper use of the seatbelt can lead to "serious head, neck, and spine damage."
As the seatbelt would hold one by the ankles while the top part of one's body is thrown forward at great force, this can be even more dangerous than not wearing a seatbelt at all.
This is why so much bad travel advice is going viral
"In theory, it might seem like a harmless travel tip, but from the perspective of safety professionals who have seen the injuries that result from a plane hitting unexpected clear air turbulence, [this] is dangerous and could cause you to suffer serious head, neck, and spine damage," Robert said.
As many of the more unusual travel hacks rely on shock factor to capture viewer attention, many of these hacks spread significantly faster and wider than expert views that debunk them.
"The seat belt is designed to sit low and tight across your lap," Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, said in a statement released after seeing the trend take off. "This is not only for your safety, if you are not properly buckled in you will likely hurt someone else when thrown in turbulence."
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