7 Things My Sister Knew About Flying That I Didn't (Until I Sat on Her Cushion)

I always thought the pain was just me. A bad back, bad luck, one of those things.

My sister said it starts with how you sit. On a normal economy seat, almost your whole weight digs into two small points: your tailbone and your sit bones. And the hard seat pushes straight back up into them, the whole flight.

This is the part nobody tells you. As we get older, the natural padding we carry over those bones thins out. There's less muscle and less cushioning between your bones and whatever you're sitting on.

So the same seat that felt fine at 40 now presses almost straight onto bone. That's what bruises it and pinches the nerves around it. And at our age, it takes longer to settle, which is why the ache follows you for days after you land.

• Tailbone Pain
• Sore Sit Bones
• Hip Ache
• Pinched Nerves
• Numb Legs
• Lower Back Pain
• Constant Shifting
• Stiff on Landing

While our padding was thinning, so was the seat's. Economy seats have far less cushioning than they used to, because thinner seats mean more rows on every plane.

Less padding in the seat. Less padding on you. Two layers of protection gone at once. That's why flights you used to handle easily now leave you barely able to stand.

I'd tried everything. Shifting from hip to hip. Standing at the back near the toilets. A folded jumper. A foam cushion from the airport shop.

But shifting just moves the pressure to another bony spot, and with less padding, every spot is a bony spot. Getting up and down the aisle gets harder every year. And foam feels great at first, then slowly squashes flat under your weight until you're sitting on bone again.

What my sister and her friends all had was a Cushy Bum. It's a travel cushion made of separate air cells.

When you sit, the air moves between the cells and shapes itself around you. Your weight spreads across the whole seat instead of digging into those two points, and your tailbone rests between the cells instead of on hard plastic.

Air doesn't squash flat like foam, and it doesn't push back like the seat. It just holds you. It feels the same when you land as when you sat down.

You set the firmness yourself. If it feels too firm, let a little air out until it's holding you, not pushing against you. It uses two valves, so no air escapes during the flight. And when you're done, it folds up small and clips onto your luggage in its own carry bag.

My sister and her friends talked me into trying one, and I let her put it on my seat. Eleven hours later, I stood up, grabbed my bag and walked off. No shuffle, no lost first day.

I ended up grabbing one for each of the kids too. They tried them on their last trip and now they won't fly without them. Run the numbers and it's not even close:

And you've got 60 days to try it. If it doesn't work for you, send it back for a full refund. I don't dread visiting the grandkids anymore.