Sneaky TikTok tip shows how to cram in extra baggage on budget flights

‘I ain’t tryna pay $60 for a carry on,’ writes TikTok travel fan

The sneakily ‘packed’ travel pillow (TikTok/Ayotothe)

A TikTok user has gone viral for her creative tip on how to avoid paying for extra baggage on budget flights.

“My flight is in three hours, let’s see how this goes!” user Ayo, who posts as @Ayotothe, captioned her video.

In the video, she calls out two specific US budget airlines for their added baggage fees, saying “Trying the Spirit and Frontier hack, cos I ain’t tryna pay $60 for a carry on”.

She then goes on to show how you can remove the stuffing from a standard travel neck pillow in order to fill the casing with extra baggage.

She says she got the tip from TikTok in the first place, writing “A few weeks ago I saw a TikTok hack for the airlines that don’t let you carry on a bag.

“Instead you can use a travel pillow as additional storage.”

Spirit Airlines charges between $55 and $100 for a carry-on bag added on at the airport, depending on whether passengers already have a checked bag. Meanwhile, Frontier charges $60 for a carry-on checked at the airport (fees are usually slightly cheaper for carry-on bags booked in advance online).

However, most airlines will allow a neck pillow free of charge, and do not count it as a baggage item.

She credits her travel pillow to US drugstore Walgreens, saying she bought it for $9 (£6.57), and pointing out the zip where the inner filling can be removed.

Ayo then fills the emptied neck pillow with the clothes she couldn’t fit in her suitcase.

“I’m going to Vegas so ya girl needs options!” she adds.

“Here’s my luggage,” she says, showing a standard backpack and the neck pillow. “Let’s see if I make it on without paying.”

In a follow-up video, Ayo says: “So for those that care, yes, I did make it on the plane and did not have to pay extra”.

She also responded to follower comments asking why she had bothered to get around the baggage fees.

“Some of you were saying in the comments, you know, why don’t you just pay for a more expensive flight, this is too much work...”

“One: it took me five minutes to do.

“Also, I live in the Bay Area, I was going to Vegas, it was an hour flight. There’s no reason, if you live that close, why you should pay $300 for a flight when you could take one of the budget airlines.

“So try a little travel hack, like a pillowcase or this travel pillow one.”

In September, fellow TikTok star Anya Iakovlieva went viral for going one step further and stuffing a full-sized bed pillowcase with clothes in order to take more belongings on holiday.