The Tiny $7 Travel Essential I Never Fly Without (It Saves Me Stress!)

I still remember how panicked I felt waking up in the middle of a flight to completely plugged ears. I’d boarded the plane feeling congested, having only just recovered from the flu (these were pre-pandemic days), buckled my seat belt, and immediately fallen asleep — only to wake up at max altitude with so much pressure built up in my head, I felt like my eardrums were about to burst. When I coughed to test my hearing, it sounded like someone in the next room was coughing. It was so uncomfortable and, for a girl like myself who tends toward hypochondria, absolutely terrifying! 

As the plane began to descend, my ears began to pop, blessedly. And when my feet hit solid ground I immediately went in search of a way to avoid ever having that experience again. In the London airport pharmacy, I came across what felt like the perfect solution: Earplanes. The silicone, corkscrew-shaped earplugs coined as “the original pressure preventing earplug,” per the website. The site also explains that a tiny ceramic filter within the silicone prevents the abrupt shift of air pressure in your ear canal that can take place on an airplane.

The Earplanes come in a handy plastic carrying case, and the whole package is about the size of a box of Tic Tacs — and only costs about $7. And let me tell you, for the peace of mind it’s given me on every flight in the years since, it’s the best $7 I’ve spent. To use them, you pop them into your ears before takeoff, then remove them (if you want) at max altitude, once the air pressure has stopped changing so rapidly. Then, when the captain announces they’re about to begin the descent, you repeat the process until landing. 

“The biggest risk to flying when congested or sick is you can clog your eustachian tubes or hurt your eardrum,” explains Dr. Manan Shah, ENT, allergist, and chief medical officer at Wyndly.com. “There is a tube that connects your ear to your nose called the eustachian tube. When you go up in pressure, that tube can clog or swell shut. This means the pressure on the inside of your eardrum can’t equalize with the pressure outside — especially as the plane ascends or descends. Most people will then experience pain as the eardrum stretches, but rarely, your eardrum can rupture, which can cause hearing loss.”

Ever since that harrowing flying-while-congested experience years ago, I haven’t had a repeat since using Earplanes — but I also haven’t flown while sick (an actually good lesson learned from the pandemic). So, I wanted to hear from an expert whether these little guys are the miracle workers I think they are. The answer is yes and no.

“Earplanes are effectively earplugs, which may help some patients but do not necessarily equalize pressure in your ears,” Shah says. “Earplanes, like any other earplug, can block sound from coming into the ear, and this can be calming for patients.”

If you’re packing your bags and feeling congested, rather than relying solely on Earplanes, Shah recommends using a combination of Afrin nasal spray and behind-the-counter Sudafed, taking them “30 minutes before takeoff and 30 minutes before landing to decrease ear pain.” He adds, “Wearing earplugs might help as well.” 

The ideal trick, though, is free and takes up no space, according to Shah: the valsalva maneuver. “In this maneuver, you pinch your nose and close your mouth and blow gently but with some force into your cheeks. This forces air up your eustachian tubes and allows the ears to ‘pop.’”

On future flights, I’ll be carrying this free, zero-space hack in my back pocket — as well as some nasal spray and a set of Earplanes in my carry-on. Though they may not fix congestion or equilibrate air pressure on their own, Shah says earplugs can have a calming effect on some patients, which is always helpful while 35,000 feet in the air.