TSA Is Encouraging Travelers To Bring Hammocks To The Airport — Just Don’t Ask Where To Hang Them

I didn’t have ‘TSA encouraging travelers to bring hammocks with them to the airport’ on my bingo card, but here we are.

Nobody said you couldn’t bring a hammock to the airport. To reduce tension, or to avoid having a falling out with the airport, check with them about where you can and can’t hang your napping apparatus. pic.twitter.com/1t5hGRrv7T

— TSA (@TSA) July 22, 2026

Believe it or not these are real photos. People actually do it!

This is what our @AmericanAir delay has come to in @PHXSkyHarbor — 4hrs and counting… pic.twitter.com/pVzeeA6kfF

— Erin (@tumblin2hot4u) October 11, 2022

Spotted, Delta Terminal @MSP from r/TwinCities

Some people take things even further with actual mattresses.

Orlando hits hard. @paulyhoward @MitchMossRadio @dustinswedelson pic.twitter.com/WSFFcAIZua

— General Mitchy Moss (@badpeatmoss) December 13, 2022

Teenage girls have brought their own pillows with them for decades. People go to extreme lengths to find comfort in uncomfortable situations. Actual hammocks and mattresses are probably the limit to the kind of napparatus you can bring. It’s just odd to see this actually recommended by a federal agency, especially one responsible for inspecting passenger belongings when they enter the airport. As one person put it,

So we have to get strip searched and demeaned by the staff, can’t bring a bottle of water into the airport, but we can set up tents and camp?

This is apparently “National Hammock Day” (that’s real!) and they’re trying to play off of that for some reason. Bear in mind that airport columns are not mounts for hammocks. And hammocks create significant load bearing. At a 15 degree suspension angle, a 200 pount person actually creates 386 pounds of load!

TSA says to ‘check with the airport’ (and also because there can be egress issues, including with accessible routes, passenger queues and boarding plus you might be in the way of maintenance). But whom exactly do you ask?

Airport management staff aren’t usually found out in the terminal where they’re available to passengers. And many airports have rules prohibiting sleeping or lying in public places.

In fact, what’s happening here is that an agency responsible for making airports unpleasant enough that people contemplate hammocks is celebrating passengers bringing their own sleeping infrastructure, while disclaiming any authority to actually let them use it.