Woman wears 2.5kg of clothes to avoid paying airline's extra luggage fees

25 April 2023 , 08:27

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One woman fell foul of her airline's bag policies (Image: Getty)

A determined passenger wore kilos and kilos of clothes to avoid paying an extra baggage fee.

When it comes to luggage, long gone are the days when you always got free bags to check in.

Nowadays airlines such as TUI, easyJet, Ryanair and British Airways each have their own policies around what you can bring onboard flights for free, whether that's one small bag or two. (We've got a guide to them here to help!).

Getting it wrong could prove costly, especially if you end up having to pay to check-in a bag.

Gel Rodriguez is one woman who got her airline's policy wrong, but decided she would not be paying an excess baggage fee.

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Gel donned several kilos of her clothes (Facebook)

Back in 2019 she went viral after revealing she had fallen foul of hand luggage rules, but instead of accepting that she would need to pay a fee, she came up with a quirky solution.

Instead she opened up her hand luggage at the airport and began putting on layers before boarding the jet.

By the time she was finished Gel was sporting an extra 2.5kg (5.5lbs) of clothing, a move which left her feeling "really hot", wearing at least three pairs of trousers or shorts, five shirts and three jackets.

At the time she shared a hilarious photo showing off her layers, which recently resurfaced as passengers continue to look for crafty tricks to avoid hand luggage rules. (The pillow hack is proving particularly popular at the moment).

Different airlines have different bag rules (Ryanair)

The dressing-up began after check-in staff told Gel that her bag weight 9kg, which was 2kg over the limit.

The passenger, from Davao City in the Philippines, later told Vice: "I didn't want to pay the fee for the excess baggage because it was only two kilograms (4.4lbs).

"If I had known it would go viral, I would have posed better."

Despite the resounding success of her move, Gel said she wouldn't attempt the stunt again and suggested others shouldn't try it.

She said: "Maybe not. It was really hot. I don't recommend other people do it."

If you're due to fly, make sure you check your airline's policy on hand luggage allowance before heading to the airport.

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Budget airlines such as Ryanair and easyJet do charge extra fees if you want to bring a second cabin bag, while some airlines such as British Airways have different tiers of economy tickets which each have their own luggage allowance.

Have you found a clever trick to avoid the extra fees? Let us know at [email protected].

Milo Boyd