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Woman's extreme way to avoid excess luggage fee

An airline passenger’s dedicated trick for getting around an excess baggage fee has delighted many and gone viral online.

Filipino passenger Gel Rodriguez was able to get her 9kg luggage onto her flight without having to pay anything extra despite her bag exceeding the airline’s limit. Rather than copping the extra charge, she put the offending weight onto her body –– all 2.5kg of it.

In her Facebook post which was put up October 2, Ms Rodriguez said the airline staff told her she needed to pay a fee for her carry-on luggage weighing more than 7kg.

Female traveller with a lot of baggage, excess luggage.
The airline passenger's 'Excess Baggage Challenge' went viral online. Source: Getty

It became obvious how the quick-thinking passenger responded to this predicament by the photo of herself which accompanied her post.

In the image, which shows Ms Rodriguez doing a Superman-like pose, she appears to be wearing at least three tops, two pairs of pants and four cardigans.

“From 9kg to 6.5kg baggage,” she wrote, along with the hashtag: “#ExcessBaggageChallengeAccepted”.

Ms Rodriguez told Vice that she “didn't want to pay the fee for the excess baggage because it was only 2 kilograms”.

Her nifty solution to a common air-travel problem was applauded online, with her post since amassing 32,000 likes, over 19,000 shares and nearly 800 comments –– many of which contained laughing emojis.

The huge online response was clearly unprecedented for Ms Rodriguez, with her joking that had she known her post would go viral she “would have posed better”.

Airline passenger Gel Rodriguez's Facebook post of her posing at the airport wearing the 2.5kg clothing which made her baggage overweight.
Gel Rodriguez refused to pay the extra fee for her overweight suitcase. Source: Facebook / Gel Rodriguez

However, she added, despite the money she saved, she wouldn’t do the “Excess Baggage Challenge” again, and advised others to probably avoid it. “It was really hot,” she explained.

Her advice is possibly wise, considering the trouble other passengers have got themselves into when trying to avoid the excess baggage fee.

Last year, British artist Ryan Hawaii was kicked off his flight by the captain for trying to wear 10 shirts and 8 pairs of pants.

In 2015, Scottish boyband member, James McElvar lost consciousness after attempting to wear all his clothes on a flight. It was initially reported that the singer had suffered a heart attack but he later turned out to have suffered heat exhaustion from the stunt.

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