Teen fined $65 by Jetstar over ridiculous baggage hack

An Australian teen was slapped with a fine over her outfit after she tried something bold to dodge an airline bagging fee.

The teen thought the hack was rather clever to avoid baggage fees. Image: TikTok

Another day, another traveller with a bold new way to game the luggage fine system.

An Australian teen was slapped with a fine after attempting to circumvent an airline baggage fee – by donning almost six kilograms of clothing, as seen in a video blowing up online.

“I looked like a bear. I’m small and petite but I looked like the exact opposite,” Adriana Ocampo, 19, told South West News Service of her backfired travel hack, which she attempted to pull during a Jetstar Airways flight from Melbourne to her hometown of Adelaide.

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Trying to avoid carry limits

The teen, who had just been on a trip with friend Emily Altamura, also 19, said she knew her luggage was over the airline’s 7kg carry on limit after she could “barely close” her bag in the hotel room.

But the duo schlepped their oversized bags to the airport in the hopes that the crew wouldn’t have time to check

“When we went to board, we saw them pulling out a trolley with a scale,” Adriana said.

That’s when she got an unorthodox idea.

“We thought the only way we can take the weight off our bags is if we put it on ourselves so we started putting on our jackets and coats,” she said.

Adriana was forced to do the routine a second time because her bag was still over the limit after her first layering effort.

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And to add to this they cancelled the flight we had before this one

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All fun and games until you have to pay

In footage shared to social media, the Aussie teen can be seen laughing hysterically as she yanks all her clothing out of the suitcase to wear – including an iPad stuffed in her pants.

She said her lumpy appearance reminded her of “the boy from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, Augustus Gloop.

Her friend, Emily, followed suit until the two were layered in what seemed like an entire wardrobe worth of clothes.

“As well as layers of jackets and jumpers, I had baggy trousers on and I was stuffing T-shirts and my iPad in them. I had about six layers on and stuff in my pockets,” Adriana said.

In the end, she said, her bag only had “a couple things left”: two pairs of shoes, a bag, a pair of jeans, and a couple of socks. And by the time they were ready, they were the last people through the gate.

The teen paid the fine. Image: TikTok

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Jetstar responds

Despite their commitment to the hack, it ultimately didn’t fly, as Jetstar told them they still had to pay the $65 fine.

“Everyone in line was staring at us and laughing at us, it was kind of embarrassing,” Adriana said, adding that “people were annoyed that we were holding the plane up.”

And if it wasn’t humiliating enough, the overdressed travellers had to endure an 80-minute flight cocooned in clothing like an attack dog trainer. And they had to pay the fine anyway.

Jetstar has since addressed the in flight fashion disaster.

“While we certainly see the funny side, we have limits to carry-on to make it fair for everyone,” a Jetstar spokesman said.

“Keeping track of how much baggage passengers bring on-board means everyone has room for their belongings and we’re meeting our safety requirements.”

The Australian girls are part of a surge in travellers MacGyvering new and often ludicrous ways to smuggle their excess baggage through security.

In March, a female plane passenger divided the internet after trying to camouflage multiple bags with her jacket to avoid having to check them.

The year before, a woman revealed how she bypassed baggage fees by smuggling clothing in a hollowed-out neck pillow.

Others have taken a similar approach to Adriana – in 2019, a Filipino airline passenger donned more than 2 extra kilograms of clothes to avoid paying a penalty.

This article originally appeared on NY Post and was reproduced with permission.

Originally published as Teen fined $65 by Jetstar over ridiculous baggage hack