Trtl Pillow Review (UK): We Tested It on 4 Long-Haul Flights

Updated May 2026 · Tested by GO PAC · How we test · Affiliate disclosure

The short version

The Trtl Pillow works. It works differently to how you probably expect it to, and it takes a flight or two before you're using it correctly, but once you understand that you're meant to be leaning sideways rather than sitting up straight, something clicks and it becomes genuinely useful. It's also the most packable serious travel pillow on the market. If you fly long-haul more than twice a year and you're a sideways sleeper, it's worth £45. If you're looking for something more conventional, the Cabeau Evolution S3 is a better shout.

What is the Trtl Pillow?

The Trtl Pillow is a scarf-shaped travel pillow with a rigid internal support spine. That's the simplest description, and it's essentially accurate. It wraps around your neck like a loose scarf and fastens at the front with a clasp. Inside the fleece-y outer is a plastic support structure, stiff enough to hold the weight of your head, slightly flexible enough to adjust to different neck shapes. The 'Plus' version (the one we tested) has multiple spine positions, letting you adjust how far the support sits from your neck.

There's no U-shape. No inflating. No deflating. No valve that inevitably leaks on the overnight flight back. You pull it out of your bag, wrap it around your neck, clip it, and lean into it. That's it. It goes from packable to usable in about 20 seconds, which is a meaningful advantage when you're trying to get settled before take-off.

Trtl is a Scottish company, founded in Glasgow, still headquartered there. The pillow has been around since around 2015 and has built a loyal and vocally divided community of travellers around it. You either swear by it or you find the whole concept baffling. Both reactions are, as we discovered, completely understandable.

Design and build

The outer material is a soft, fleece-adjacent fabric, comfortable against skin, warm (which is a mild issue on long flights in humid cabins, more on that later), and machine-hand-washable. The inner support spine is rigid plastic with a slight flex to it. The Plus version's spine has multiple positions, we counted four adjustable settings, which allows you to customise how close the support sits to your neck and how far it extends upward.

The clasp at the front is simple and secure. It doesn't come undone mid-flight, which is the main thing you need from it. There are a few colour options, nothing wild, mostly muted tones that don't look embarrassing when you're walking through an airport.

The build quality is solid. We've had ours through a year of use, multiple flights per month, and the fabric outer shows no significant wear, the spine is undamaged, and the clasp works exactly as it did on day one. The washable outer is a genuine plus: most travel pillows accumulate neck-smell in an alarming way, and being able to hand-wash this one every few weeks makes a real difference to long-term use.

The only build note: the Plus version's spine makes it slightly less compressible than the original. If you're packing into a very full carry-on, the original might be more practical. The Plus is marginally bulkier but the adjustability is worth it if you have the space.

Comfort, does it actually work?

This is the question. And the honest answer is: yes, but not in the way you'll expect the first time.

The Trtl doesn't hold your head upright. It holds your head sideways. This is a critical distinction, and it's why first-time users often think it doesn't work, they're sitting bolt upright expecting the pillow to keep their head from dropping forward, and of course it doesn't, because that's not what it does. The spine provides lateral support: it goes beside your neck, and you lean into it. Your head rests against the spine, the spine takes the weight, your neck doesn't strain. That's the mechanism.

Once you understand this, and start using it correctly, leaning sideways rather than fighting to stay upright, it works remarkably well. The head-drop problem (the sudden lurch forward that jolts you awake) essentially disappears, because you're resting with your head already supported in a lateral position. For side sleepers, this is as close to a real sleep position as you can get in an economy seat.

The caveat: bolt-upright sleepers won't benefit much. If your natural sleep position is straight up with your head perfectly balanced, the Trtl gives you nothing, you'd need something that prevents forward head-drop, which is a different problem. Similarly, if you share a armrest and want to lean toward the window, the pillow positions the support on whichever side you wrap it, so think about where you're sitting before you board.

On warmth: the fleece outer is noticeably warm around the neck on longer flights. This was a minor annoyance in warmer cabins and genuinely uncomfortable on a particularly stuffy A380 at hour nine. Not a dealbreaker, you can wear it loosely, but worth knowing if you run warm.

We tested it across four long-haul flights: London to Bangkok, London to Singapore, Lisbon to New York, and Dubai to London. By flight three, everyone who used it had stopped thinking about it and just used it. By flight four, two out of three team members had retired their previous pillow. The third still thinks it looks too strange. All three agree it works.

Packability

This is where the Trtl has a clear and uncontested advantage over almost every competitor. It folds flat. Not "compact" flat, actually, genuinely flat, roughly the footprint of a small book and perhaps an inch thick. It clips to the outside of a bag or tucks inside without taking up any meaningful space.

Compare this to a memory-foam horseshoe pillow, even a compressed one, and the difference is significant if you're carry-on-only. The Trtl takes up about a fifth of the space of a standard U-shaped pillow, and about half the space of the Cabeau in its compression sack. For anyone who travels with a single carry-on and is making the usual compromises, this matters.

The Plus version is slightly less compressible than the original due to the multi-position spine, but still significantly more packable than any alternative we've tested. The original is genuinely borderline invisible in a bag. Both versions come with a built-in clasp that lets them clip to a bag handle or strap, which is a small but useful detail for station and airport transit.

Trtl vs Cabeau vs Classic U-pillow