Buying a ticket for 2023 means you’ll face an increasingly creative array of fees. Passengers must be prepared to carry baggage charges, checked baggage charges, excess baggage charges, in-flight hunger charges, and checked bag charges. print boarding pass. Worse, these fees add up to sometimes more than the cost of the flight itself.
Facing a wave of rising creative fees, travelers are getting creative and taking matters into their own hands — or rather, out of their own pocket.
Check it out: The fishing vest, a travel hack popularized by travel writer Chelsea Dickenson earlier this summer, is a way for travelers to avoid paying for carry-on bags — if they don’t mind taking it with them If you carry luggage.
In a recent TikTok, Dickenson (nickname @ )Cheap Vacation Specialist, listing the various items she can store in the vest, which she bought for about $14: two outfits, a speaker, a deck of cards, a wallet, a power bank, deodorant, and even in the vest’s roomy back pocket There is also a rather large object in it. laptop.
“I’m actually so sure this will work, I’m not even going to hide it under my jacket,” she says in the video. “This is the pocket. You can take the pocket, right?” Sure enough, she was greeted through the gate without incident.
Some travelers are getting more creative.one insider The reporter packs two swimsuits, makeup bag, headphones, a laptop, charger and a book into the vest, while the rest of the clothes needed for the weekend trip are packed into the backpack.
her motives? revenge.After being charged $100 for a cheap ticket change and threatened to pay more for a change through an agent, “If I can be sure of one thing, it’s that I’m not going to pay $65 for a flight – on the bag ,” Hannah Toy wrote. “I stuffed that vest to the brim.”
$103 billion in costs
When it comes to fishing vests, passengers have every right to try them, says Teresa Murray, a consumer watchdog for the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG).
“Airlines do state that they don’t count coats or any food you buy once you’re in the airport, other than your personal items,” she told wealth.
Airlines are aware of some of the tricks passengers use to circumvent restrictions, such as wear all clothes on the plane— This tactic worked for some passengers, but it also resulted in others being kicked off the flight. They are also cracking down on plane rushing, a money-saving tactic in which travelers book multiple flights and use only part of it.
But consumer advocates suggest that if airlines are upset that passengers are trying to break the rules, they should do a good job of self-examination.
The public who flew by plane last year paid Nearly $103 billion Surcharges account for 15 percent of airline sales, according to IdeaWorks, a firm that specializes in such fees. That same year, consumer complaints against U.S. airlines reached their highest level in three decades, covering cancellations, delays, mishandled baggage and fares, among other issues. PIRG Discovery.
“It’s not what you think — air travel has become more stressful,” Murray said. “It’s no longer a time for people to relax, but to be a little bit scared of traveling by air.”
John Breyault, an aviation expert with the National Consumers Union, said travelers who stuffed their vests, coat pockets or travel pillows “are clearly fed up with all the ever-increasing prices airlines charge for airfares”.
NCL, PIRG and other consumer advocates are pushing Congress Requiring Disclosure of Upfront Fees from the operator. Without it, airlines would have an incentive to charge more of the cost increase into fees, as consumers respond to lower base fares, and the fees are exempt from the 7.5% federal tax that applies to fares.
“You can’t do like-for-like comparisons of the costs of different airlines with Expedia, Kayak or Google flights. That’s no accident,” Breot said. “Airlines recognize that competing on fares alone is a stupid game for them.”
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