There have been a few incidents of people loading extra clothing on themselves, sometimes even 15 clothing items, to avoid paying extra baggage fees at the airport and it’s bizarre! But if you think that there couldn’t be any more ways to avoid baggage fees, I’d have to ask you to hold that thought.
According to a report by The Sun, a female traveller attempted to avoid paying baggage fees by pretending to be pregnant. She stuffed a laptop and a few wires under her clothes to make it look like a baby bump!
Travel writer Rebecca wasn’t allowed to carry more than 7kg as hand luggage in her flight. Extra baggage would cost her nearly Rs 3,000 approx ($60 AUS). So she came up with a hack.
She put her laptop down her back which was kept in place by the straps of her jumpsuit. Then she wrapped her wires with some clothes and placed it in front of her stomach, making it appear like a baby bump under her clothes.
She then went on to wear her regular clothes over the jumpsuit. She made a tutorial video out of the hack and posted it on Instagram.
According to People, the airport authorities weighed her bag and gave her an “all clear”. But she was the last person to board the flight, so everyone’s attention was on her. There was this one moment when she dropped her boarding pass and it made a sound, attracting attention.
“As I bent over to pick up the ticket, the shape of my laptop down my back suddenly became apparent”, she said.
The authorities then understood that something was fishy and asked her if there were things kept under her clothing. Rebecca panicked and confessed everything. The authorities went on to charge her the extra baggage fees.
“While we appreciate the creativity, our team is pretty wise to all the tricks,” an airplane spokesperson said.
Looking back at the incident, Rebecca said that she would do it all over again. Just that she would make sure she isn’t the last person to board the flight!
While this sounds like a sneaky yet effective hack, how many of us would dare to pull this off? The airport security would see right through us!