Woman fakes pregnancy to avoid excess baggage fee on flight

A woman has revealed how she faked a pregnancy in a bid to avoid paying an airline’s excess baggage fee.

Anyone who has ever been stung with having to fork out for an overstuffed suitcase will likely appreciate one woman’s ploy to avoid paying the enforced fee.

Rebecca Andrews was flying from Melbourne to Sydney and suspected the weight of her luggage might tip her over Jetstar’s baggage allowance.

The airline only allows travellers to bring a 7kg bag as hand luggage unless they pay AU$60 (approximately £32).

So in a bid to side-step the system, the travel writer decided to stuff her belongings down the front of her jumpsuit to form a pregnancy “bump”.

And she almost got away with it too, until she was found out at the very last minute.

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Sharing a video to Instagram of how she went about the ploy, Rebecca filmed herself in the baby-changing at the airport concealing her laptop down the back of her stretchy, leopard print jumpsuit.

She also hid a heavy charger and rolled-up extra clothes down her front, which then formed a bump, making her appear pregnant.

The writer then layered loose clothing over the top.

The plan seemed to have the desired effect as she managed to reduce her luggage weight to within the 7kg limit.

She even managed to fool a fellow passenger who asked her how far along into her pregnancy she was.

But things began to unravel after arriving at the gate late, meaning she was the last passenger to board the flight and therefore drew all the attention of the staff.

As she went to board the flight, she dropped her ticket and had to bend over to pick it up.

“The shape of my laptop down my back suddenly became apparent,” she explained in an article on Escape.com.au.

A staff member then noticed and asked if Rebecca had a backpack on under her jacket.

Feeling the game was up, Rebecca admitted she “freaked out” and confessed all to the Jetstar staff.

She was then issued with the excess baggage charge anyway.

Despite her mission ultimately proving unsuccessful, the writer hasn’t been entirely put off from another attempt should she find herself facing another overweight fee.

“Honestly, if my carry-on was ever overweight I would do it again and just make sure I was not the last person to board,” she said.

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Rebecca isn’t the only one to come up with an innovative way to avoid excess baggage fees.

Earlier this month a women decided to take matters into her own hands when she was told that she needed to pay an excess baggage fee at the airport.

Gel Rodriguez was on her way to board a flight when she was told at the check-in counter that her baggage exceeded the 7kg weight limit.

Instead of coughing up, the woman she decided to layer on her clothes on top of each other.

After sharing a picture of herself, dressed in at least three visible pairs of trousers and seven tops, to Facebook, it quickly went viral, garnering 20,000 shares and 32,000 reactions.

And back in April, a British woman wore almost nine pounds of clothing to skip out on paying Thomas Cook Airlines an overweight baggage fee.

"I didn't want to be using the little amount I had just so I could get my bag on the plane," she told the Sun. "I literally said, 'I'm not paying it', and started putting my clothes on."

Aside from skipping airline fees, other passengers have also opted to share simple hacks that have made travelling that little bit easier.

Earlier this year a mum was praised for her simple hack to help her baby sleep while flying economy.

As any parent who has flown long haul with a baby or toddler will appreciate getting little ones to sleep comfortably is a tricky prospect, particularly if you’re not lucky enough to be flying first class.

So one mum decided to share her simple trick to make things a whole lot easier, and comfier.

The mum, from Australia, teamed an inflatable pillow with a budge pet bed to create a makeshift bed for her daughter to nap in comfort.