Want to save money on travel? Try using fishing gear

Vacations can already be a big expense, and the cost of luggage can really add to the cost of things. To get around the costs, a number of online influencers are sharing how they manage to travel with their personal items without paying the added luggage fees.

The cost of oversized baggage on a flight with El Al, to Europe or across the Middle East, is $100 (approximately 361NIS) if the airline is given less than 3 hours' notice, according to the El Al website. For a flight to North America, the site says that the fee is $200.

Travel hacks to save money

Peter Barnett, who is based in the United States, took to TikTok to share his money-saving hack. Barnett, an assistant to a film director, shared how he takes his multi-pocketed fishing jacket on flights with him.

“I just carry it on, ‘this is my jacket.’ They don’t know what’s in there,” Barnett told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). “It allows me to have really cheap vacations.” Once aboard, he simply stores the jacket in an overhead compartment.

Chelsea Dickens, who dispenses her travel tips on the website cheapholidayexpert.com, shared that she removes the memory foam from her travel pillow and fills it with her clothing. She also used Barnett’s fishing jacket hack, having ordered the jacket specifically for the trip.  

Dickens shared with WSJ that the jacket only cost her $14.

How widely used is the hack?

“I see it all the time,” Patrick Berry, the president and CEO of Fly Fishers International told the WSJ. “Almost all the vests have huge back pockets; it’s amazing what you can put in there.”

“No self-respecting fly-fisherman or woman wants to get caught by their friends wearing a fly-fishing vest in a public space where there’s no fish to be caught, you would look like a giant dork.”

“What are you going to do with a box of flies and your emergency compass in O’Hare?” he added. “Nothing.”

Julie Waters, who shared her experience trying the fishing jacket hack, said that “The clothes on your lower back made it kind of hard to sit, you couldn’t lean all the way back—there is this puffy thing.” 

Despite her discomfort, she was able to travel without any fuss.

“No one batted an eye, but a friend did make a comment that someone could have thought you were some kind of crazy Unabomber-type person so that would be the biggest downside,” she explained. “What I really want to try is the pillowcase one, where instead of a pillow it’s full of clothes.”