Phone: check. Passport: check. Boarding pass: check. Make it look cute: check. (Click.)
Over the past few months, influencers and content creators have flooded TikTok, Instagram and other social media sites with pictures and videos of aesthetically pleasing … airport trays. Yes, those gray, plastic bins in which you put your shoes, keys, laptop and other personal items.
In the images, the utilitarian bins come to life with carefully arranged accessories — cameras, headphones, tickets. Some displays get elaborate, adding designer purses and makeup, while others simply arrange commonplace items in a nicer way.
A recent video showed a creator’s monochrome variations for different cities. Others opt to display the contents of their gadget-filled personal carry-on item or their favorite book.
For Hitha Palepu, the author of “How to Pack: Travel Smart for Any Trip,” the trend is one of her “biggest travel pet peeves and icks” for several reasons: inconsideration of fellow travelers and security staff, “gross” hygiene and an unrealistic portrayal of the messy — and often stressful — realities of travel.
On a recent afternoon at Los Angeles International Airport, not all passengers were aware of the tray trend (yet). Some were baffled — European travelers, in particular — and some were intrigued. Others said they had encountered it.
“They don’t look very nice,” said Alexandra Le Sueur, 26, who had recently seen someone arrange one in Denver. The trays themselves, she said, were “disgusting.” (A 2018 study found that the plastic trays carry more cold germs than airport toilets.)
Teresa Lutwak, 58, who said she traveled almost weekly for her work as a sales manager for a vineyard, had noticed women in their 20s and 30s — who she guessed were on girls trips — trying out the trend in the last six months or so.
Across the country, at La Guardia Airport in New York City, a sense of skepticism prevailed. New Yorkers did not seem eager to add an obstacle to their trips.
As if the base line anxiety of travel weren’t enough to deal with, adding “annoyed” to the roster of emotions might send some travelers like Celeste Hernandez, 27, over the edge. “The way I’m waiting for TSA to yell at me just because I’m taking my sweater off,” she said with a laugh, en route to Houston.
But some said that onlookers were too quick to be grumpy about the latest influencer trend.
The posts, many said, were meant to be expressive, celebrate the joy of travel or bond with friends.
“Having fun is the point,” Piper Taich, 25, a graphic designer who posted a video of her own aesthetic trays in July, said. She arranged them on the floor of her apartment’s living room in Chicago.
In addition, worries that the trend would delay already stressful security lines were unfounded, some creators said. Many recent videos urged waiting until after getting through the security lines.
In a video this summer, Chelsea Henriquez, a New York City-based content creator, instructed her followers to stage the photo in the area after security. She made the video before a flight to Puerto Rico, when she had some extra time at the airport, after going through security. (Ms. Henriquez said she used TSA PreCheck to move more quickly through security.)
She said she received negative responses to the post, with some commenters implying that the pictures of trays were “pointless,” she said.
“There is value in anything that brings you joy,” Ms. Henriquez said. “If you see a family taking a picture at the airport to commemorate their travels, you wouldn’t stop to question why they’re doing that.”
The Transportation Security Administration is aware of the trend, but a spokesperson said the agency had no problem with it “as long as the staged glamour photos are not causing delays or issues with other passengers in the checkpoint.”
The trend may have started as a way to help sell products.
Posts seemed to start taking off after Julia Rabinowitsch, who runs the Millennial Decorator, an online shop that sells vintage items, took photos simulating the travel trays last summer to sell vintage shoes.
Even though people might have been taking such photos in a casual capacity before then, “I definitely think I exacerbated the trend,” she said. (The trend even reached Faber Books, an independent publishing house, which used aesthetic trays to promote some of its titles last month.)
Ms. Rabinowitsch, 28, bought a tray off Amazon, she said, and styled the photo shoot at home. Like some other influencers, she said she would not actually do this at the airport. In her apartment, she said, “the bin is cleaner, the lighting is better and there’s less angry people around me.”
Another video on this topic was a marketing attempt by Sarin Jivalagian, the chief executive and founder of Pursue, an online store that sells vintage and second hand designer bags.
While traveling to Las Vegas recently, she and her friends arranged a small photo shoot on some benches after the security line at Hollywood Burbank Airport in California. The trays were a way to showcase her shop’s bags, Ms. Jivalagian said.
Some people jumped to conclusions, she said, assuming that she had been holding up the line. “Did you do this in Des Moines, Iowa?” One commenter asked, “because where did they let you take up this much time in TSA????” Another person took issue with the hygiene of it all, commenting: “shoe soles on bags? yuck.”
(Ms. Jivalagian said she and her friends did not cause any delays.)
Even if pictures are taken after security, “that’s one less bin to get through security seamlessly,” Ms. Palepu, the author, said. “That’s inconsiderate.”
When Ms. Palepu goes through security, she loads the conveyor belt small to large — first her jacket, then her personal item and then her larger carry-on luggage. She’ll then take all of her things to a nearby bench and reorganizes herself.
But taking a picture of this process? “Nothing is worth it,” she said.
Elizabeth Sova, 31, a La Guardia traveler who had seen the trend on TikTok, agreed. “I appreciate the aesthetic, but I’m efficient and just want to get through as quickly as possible,” she said before her flight to Chicago, noting that a TSA agent in Cincinnati once told her she was the most efficient traveler he’d ever seen go through the line. “That was the best day of my life,” she said.
Before flying to New York City from Oklahoma City recently, Lexie Brown, 25, had a vision for styling her carry-on items — her purse, headphones, “a cute little lipstick,” hand sanitizer and shoes. But when it came time to arrange her tray, Ms. Brown got too nervous about holding up the TSA line.
She thought about doing it after the security line, but even then, “the trays kept coming,” she said. “I didn’t want to get the look.”
There was still another chance for her return trip with an opportunity to add some New York City flare to the tray, Ms. Brown said. Perhaps a hat, she suggested, or better yet: an “I Love NY” T-shirt.
The post Shoes Off. Laptops Out. Airport Tray Photo Shoot? appeared first on New York Times.
