Woman’s insane act to avoid baggage fee

A passenger has gone to extreme lengths to avoid paying a fee after her carry-on was 2kg over the weight limit.

A woman has gone to extreme lengths to avoid paying a fee after her carry-on was over the maximum weight limit.

Gel Rodriguez, from the Philippines, shared a Facebook post in which she was wearing 2.5kg of clothes after she was told she would need to pay extra because her luggage was over 7kg.

The resurfaced photo from 2019 has gone viral again which shows the passenger posing in the middle of an empty airport.

“When the airline staff at the check-in counter said: ‘YOU ARE IN EXCESS, only 7kg is allowed to hand carry. Me: NO PROBLEM!”

She added the hashtag ‘ExcessBaggageChallengeAccepted’ and revealed her luggage weight went from 9kg down to 6.5kg.

Gel Rodriguez, from the Philippines, wore 2.5kg of her own clothes to avoid paying an extra fee for being over the 7kg weight limit. Picture: Facebook

Her post has been liked 49,000 times and has attracted thousands of comments with some travellers revealing they have done the same thing to avoid paying a fee.

“What a brilliant mind,” one person commented, while another added, “Thank you for the idea.”

But despite being applauded for her genius solution, Ms Rodriguez said she will never attempt to layer herself with clothing at the airport again.

“It was really hot,” she told VICE. “I don’t recommend other people do it.”

She also joked that had she known her post would go viral, she would have posed better.

In the photo she could be seen wearing at least 10 pieces of clothing, including several pairs of pants, tops, jackets and a cap.

Meanwhile, another passenger also went viral when she piled on the clothes to avoid a $119 baggage charge.

She’s not the only one to do this. Natalie Wynn from the UK also dogged a $119 fee by wearing nearly 4kg of her own clothes. Picture: Kennedy News

Natalie Wynn, 30, was stopped while boarding a Thomas Cook flight also in 2019, when a security officer weighed her 9.4kg case and told her it was too heavy to be taken into the cabin as the limit was 6kg.

So, instead she wore seven dresses, two pairs of shoes, two pairs of shorts, a skirt and a cardigan to avoid the fee.

And just like Ms Rodriguez, the 30-year-old claimed she was “boiling” while dressed in nearly half of the clothes she had packed.

Thomas Cook airline staff compared the traveller’s ploy to the episode of Friends in which Joey wears Chandler’s whole wardrobe. Picture: NBC

Once on the plane, Ms Wynn asked a flight attendant if she was allowed to take the clothes off before returning them to her suitcase.

Even Thomas Cook themselves praised Ms Wynn’s ingenuity and compared her ploy to the episode of Friends in which Joey wears Chandler’s whole wardrobe.

“I was boiling, absolutely boiling. I still had plenty in my case, but I put [on] near enough half of what [I’d packed],” said Ms Wynn, from Oldham in Greater Manchester.

A Thomas Cook Airlines spokeswoman said at the time: “Natalie’s ingenuity here is noted!

“The good news for Natalie, and the rest of our customers, is that later this month we are increasing our hand baggage allowance to 8kg.

“This will hopefully help her travel a little less like Joey from Friends next time.”