Passenger wears all her clothes to avoid excess baggage charge

Weight of outfit came to 2.5kg

A passenger whose luggage exceeded the weight limit at the airport took an innovative approach to avoid paying the hefty excess baggage charges.

Gel Rodriguez from Davao City in the Philippines decided to wear as many of her clothes as possible, claiming that the multi-layered outfit saved her 2.5kg in precious weight.

She posted a picture of herself, dressed in at least three visible pairs of trousers and seven tops, to Facebook. It went viral, garnering 20,000 shares and 32,000 reactions.

“When the airline staff at the check in counter said: ‘EXCESS NA PO KAYO, 7kg lang po allowed na hand carry.’

“Me: NO PROBLEM! *from 9kg to 6.5kg baggage #ExcessBaggageChallengeAccepted.”

Commenters called the move “brilliant”, “original” and “genius”.

However, when asked if she would do it again, Rodriguez told Vice, “Maybe not. It was really hot. I don’t recommend other people do it.”

Ms Rodriguez is far from the first flyer to try and beat the system.

In 2018, a Ryanair passenger went viral when he got around the airline’s newly introduced hand luggage policy in ingenious, if unfashionable, style.

Unwilling to pay more for a second bag on his flight to Belfast, Lee Cimino, 30, converted an old coat into a wearable suitcase.

He took an old beige coat to his local tailor and asked them to customise it with pockets and compartments.

The idea was to fit the entire contents of a roll-on cabin bag into the lining of the coat. Toiletry bags were sewn in, as well as several pairs of pants to provide extra storage.

“Security wasn’t an issue, I just put it in the tray,” he told The Independent.

“The worry and the nerves were something else, but I got to the gate and boarded the plane with zero issues.”

He added: “There’d be no hesitation in doing it in future or recommending other people give it a go. It’s not so much the cost even, but you don’t have to wait for your bag to be offloaded at the other end. It saves time and money.”