Last week I was on a Southwest flight flying home from Cancun. I was lucky enough to snag the exit row window seat with 5′ of legroom.

A couple sat next to me and part way through the flight they wanted to watch a movie together. Unfortunately they were sharing one pair of headphones and one iPhone 🙁

There were three problems with this setup but I was able to help them with one.

First – they had to share one set of headphones. Each person only got one ear bud. That sucks – I wouldn’t be able to get into the movie with only sound in one ear. That’s why I always travel with a headphone splitter. For less than $10 – this Amazon Basics one works great.

Second – the headphones they were sharing weren’t noise cancelling. My life changed when I got noise cancelling headphones. I thought I’ll just turn up the volume on regular headphones but found out it doesn’t really work that way. Noise cancelling is a game changer – try them and you will never go back.

And no you don’t have to get the big over the head and ears headphones to have noise cancelling. I bought these Bose Quietcontrol 30s which have been amazing. When you can fall asleep with them on and not notice you know they are comfortable.

The third problem the couple had was trying to setup the iphone between them without having to hold it up the whole time. They bridged the tray tables with the inflight magazine which seemed to work but they couldn’t get the airplane safety card bent properly to hold up the phone.

---

Re-purpose a Hotel Key

This is where I jumped into action and used my travel hacking ninja skills to help. I grabbed one of my leftover hotel keys from my bag and quickly got to work making them a cellphone holder.

They were thrilled with it and thanked me.

Want to make your own? Here’s how:

First, any standard plastic hotel key will due (gift cards work well too for 🙂

The first card bend will be the hardest. Bend the first section about a 1/4″ or just enough for it to hold your phone.

The second and final bend needs to be done so the remaining section is in equal halves.

It’s that easy!

So next time you check out and keep the hotel key, use your ninja skills to re-purpose it into a cell phone holder to watch your favorite movie.

Thanks for installing the Bottom of every post plugin by Corey Salzano. Contact me if you need custom WordPress plugins or website design.