These New Travel Pillows Want to Dethrone Trtl. I Tried Them All.

The egregiously expensive Pluto Pod fastens tightly around the neck, with a 360-degree padded brace that allows you to lean back or to the side. Attached to the brace is a round hood that gives the impression of a space helmet and helps muffle noise. There’s also a drop-down blackout eye mask attached to the hood, which turns the entire contraption into a personal sensory-deprivation chamber.

I’m impressed with this crazy-looking pillow, although I don’t love that you need to pull the mask down below your mouth to get a full blackout effect — this feels suffocating at first, even though plenty of air is flowing through. Compared to the Trtl, it offers a more complete in-flight sleep experience, blocking both light and sound, although you’d probably still want to wear earplugs. The neck-brace component is also slimmer and squishier than the Trtl’s, which allows you to lean against the plane wall more comfortably if that’s an option. The Pluto Pod packs upfairlysmall, but it is definitely on the bulky side. A carabiner clip does allow you to attach it to the outside of your luggage.

We’ve been recommending the original J-Pillow, with a J-shape that simultaneously supports the head, neck, and chin, as asolid window-seat optionfor a few years now. The brand recently updated its design to include an adjustable scarf strap that fastens it around your neck, and I find it to be very comfortable — it’s essentially a Trtl but with stuffing, which is preferable for leaning on hard surfaces. The J-Pillow is bulky and really only suitable for side-sleepers, but it’s worth considering if you prefer a plusher pillow and don’t mind having to carry (or wear) it onto the plane.

One common Trtl complaint is that its hidden brace plate on the side doesn’t prevent the wearer’s head from flopping forward. Cabeau’s thicker, tighter Evolution X straps together more severely, propping up your head like a medical brace would but adding a memory-foam liner for comfort. The pillow is somewhat customizable using a hidden strap at the back that can tighten or loosen the fit, as well as a front toggle mechanism; there are air vents on the side to prevent that overheated-ear feeling, which is definitely an issue I’ve had wearing the Trtl on long-haul flights in the past. It doesn’t solve the Trtl’s window-seat problem but is both more supportive and slightly more plush; the trade-off is slightly less portability.

I tend to think that air travel is exhausting enough without having to blow up a pillow during takeoff, but the designers of Coop’s travel pillow have saved me the trouble. The AirJustable is made from memory foam but can be additionally bulked up by pressing a pump button that reminds me of those inflatable Nike basketball sneakers from the ’80s. The result is a satisfyingly squishy pillow that doesn’t feel too taut and can also be worn a number of ways, with the toggle strap ensuring it props up the neck whether you’re leaning back or to the side. This is absolutely the most comfortable pillow of the bunch, especially if you’re used to sleeping on a Coop memory-foam pillow at home. And it would work for window, aisle, and middle seats. Just note that it does have a looser fit than the Trtl and Cabeau Evolution X above; while it does wrap around the neck and support the chin, there’s no structured brace component. It is also bulkier than traditional inflatable-pillow designs due to the foam.