Women wear 6 kg of clothes to avoid excess baggage fee, get fined by airline

Two teenagers in Australia got creative to avoid paying excess baggage fee (Representational image)

Two teenagers in Australia wore a staggering 6.5 kilograms of clothing to avoid their airlines’ excess baggage fee, but ended up having to pay a fine anyway.

Adriana Ocampo, 19, was returning to Adelaide after a trip to Melbourne with her friend Emily Altamura on March 20, The Mirror reported. Ocampo was well aware that her carry-on bag exceeded her airline’s maximum weight limit of 7 kg. She was hoping, however, that Jetstar would not weigh passenger baggage and she would be allowed to check in with her bag.

But when Ocampo saw Jetstar was weighing passengers' luggage at the desk, she and her friend decided to wear as many of their clothes as they could to avoid paying the excess baggage fee.

Ocampo told South West News Service that she looked “like a bear” while trying to layer her clothes.

“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.

Besides the jackets and coats, she also wore baggy trousers into which she stuffed her T-shirts and iPad. Their attempt to circumvent the excess baggage fee of AU$65 did not amuse their fellow travellers.

“Everyone in line was staring at us and laughing at us, it was kind of embarrassing,” Ocampo admitted. “People were annoyed that we were holding the plane up.”

And to make matters worse, their stunt was ultimately unsuccessful – Jetstar made them pay the excess baggage fine anyway.

“While we certainly see the funny side, we have limits to carry-on to make it fair for everyone,” the low cost airline told The Independent in a statement. “Keeping track of how much baggage passengers bring onboard means everyone has room for their belongings and we’re meeting our safety requirements.”