Carry-on: Passengers like Mr Cimino, right, are going to extreme lengths to avoid Ryanair's new fees. Photo / Getty Images and Facebook
Carry-on: Passengers like Mr Cimino, right, are going to extreme lengths to avoid Ryanair's new fees. Photo / Getty Images and Facebook
In a bid to bypass budget airlines' strict baggage policies, one savvy traveller came up with an ingenious plan.
Lee Cimino, a traveller-turned-couturist from Staffordshire in the UK, was looking for a solution to his baggage woes ahead of a trip to Belfast.
His trip was due to take placejust days after his carrier Ryanair had introduced unpopular carry-on luggage charges. The Irish airline is now charging passengers between $11.70 and $15.60 for items of hand luggage taken into the cabin or almost $20 to check them into the hold.
Needless to say, Cimino was not impressed. So in a bid to avoid the new charges he took a long coat to a tailor to add the equivalent of a carry-on suitcase in extra pockets.
This is for you if you've ever been frustrated by Ryanair.
This is how you get around the new baggage charges every time.
It might even make you smile :D
Posting the evidence in a video to Facebook, he was able to board the plane with no bags, no extra charges and just a coat - if a rather heavy one at that.
"I fly with Ryanair all over, so I'm clued up when it comes to their bag rules," Cimino told The Sun Online.
"It's not breaking any rules to try and take all of your luggage in your clothes, so I took an old coat out of my cupboard and took it to (a tailor) to see what they could do for around £25 to £30 ($49-$59)."
Lee Cimino was able to stow away a pair of trainers, shorts, a t-shirt jumper, a towel, underpants socks and an airport pouch of toiletries.
"The coat fitted comfortably with all of the stuff in it and I even wore it around Belfast until we got to our accommodation," he said.
Documenting the experiment in an online video, Mr Cimino showed the moment he passed security and boarded the plane bound for Belfast.
Speaking to The Sun Cimino said, "we weren't trying to make a scene, we just wanted to do it in a discreet manner to see if we could and to prove that you could get on to the plane still carrying what you needed."
Success! Lee Cimino models his new flight jacket, safely on Irish soil. Photo / Facebook, Supplied
The tight-pursed traveller is full of packing hacks. On his annual ski trip with friends he has been known to pack a week's worth of clothes and belongings into his snowboard bag, rather than pay to check in a separate case.
In an interview with The Daily Mail, Ryanair's Chief Marketing Officer Kenny Jacobs said the new charges were introduced to "speed up boarding".
If everyone had a coat as well equipped for travelling as Mr Cimino's the boarding process would be sped up no ends.
