Avoid airline charges - wear your baggage!

The Airline Business blog on Flight Global reports that savvy travelers are avoiding the problem of limited space in carry-on baggage by using their clothes as containers.

Debenhams says that budget travellers are "picking the pockets of airline thanks to a loophole in the baggage rules".

The shop has seen sales of its big coats and lots of pockets rise by 350% over the summer, and it thinks passengers are doing it to avoid expensive baggage charges.

"Rather than pay expensive charges for stowing cases in the hold of the plane, canny holidaymakers are using their free hand luggage allowance and 'wearing' the rest of their baggage."

They are putting the new trend down to reports from the shop floor that customers prefer to pack heavier items such as books, towels, electronic net books and cameras, into large pocketed garments, rather than pay fees up to £40 return, charged by some low-cost airlines for cases stowed in the hold.

As a result sales of Debenhams Rocha.John Rocha navy blue parka with six pockets have gone up by 350% and the beige Mantaray five pocket bomber jackets, which even have a discreet pocket in the sleeve, has seen sales jump by 200%. Debenhams Mantaray shower proof coat, with 7 pockets has also seen sales leap by 181%.

Carie Barkhuizen, spokeswoman for Debenhams, said: "Worn strategically, multi-pocket coats and trousers can offer up to 10 pockets to stow everything from spare pants and socks, to bikinis and sarongs. It's traveling light like we have never seen before.

"Our sales assistants have even reported some customers coming in with specific items like net-books and paperbacks, to check if they will fit in the pockets before they buy the coat or jacket."

There's more at the link.

Intrigued, I decided to put this to the test myself. I flew yesterday from Tennessee to Alaska, to visit Miss D. and help with the closing stages of reassembling her aircraft's wings. Instead of taking my normal cabin carry-on bag, I took a smaller unit, and filled the pockets of a military-surplus winter parka that I brought along (with snow already falling in Alaska, I reckoned that my Tennessee attire of T-shirts and shorts might be a bit lacking . . . )

It worked just fine. I was able to carry all I normally take into the cabin - a bit more, as a matter of fact - and it was much easier to handle the smaller cabin bag and coat than it was to muscle a maximum-legal-size, heavy cabin case into and down from the overhead compartments. I can recommend the idea, and I'll be using it in future.

Peter