Budget to bespoke, fashionistas are tailoring excess luggage hacks to avoid carryon fees. Photo / Bruno's Originals; Walgreens
Extra luggage fees can be a 'pain in the neck' but one traveller has found a genius way around paying extra.
Travel blogger Anayo Awuzie revealed the travel hack to her TikTok followers last week, and all it involves is a common travel accessory you might already be carrying:
A neck pillow.
Anayo, who uses the handle @anayotothe, said that she wasn't the first person to come up with the trick, but she can confirm it works.
"Trying the Spirit and Frontier pillow hack cuz I ain't tryna pay $60 for a carry on," she said.
The first step is to unstuff your U-shaped neck pillow, to make room for your weighty must-have holiday accessories. Some washable travel pillows already come with a zipper, which allow for easy padding removal.
"Make sure to get a pillow with a zipper for easy stuffing," she said. Anayo was able to find one from Walgreens for under $14.
Going without a second choice of outfit was unthinkable, neither was paying for extra bags.
"I'm going to Vegas so ya girl needs options!"
Rolling her excess luggage she re-stuffed the pillow with clothes, t-shirts and dresses. She made sure to keep the shape of the pillow, to avoid suspicion.
The operation was done 3 Hours before her flight, without a hitch.
Yes I did make it onto the flight without paying extra. I don't know if the airport I was flying out of was a little bit more lenient, but I got to Vegas carrying only a backpack.
Closer to home a Kiwi fashion designer Bruno Harding devised a tailor-made solution to keeping his carryon under-weight.
The former AUT fashion student with a love for technical fabrics devised a way to not leave a garment behind after a year abroad in Europe amid the Covid pandemic.
"It was an Idea I have always had, but never really needed, until I was travelling home late last year after a year of living in Berlin, hence all the extra luggage!"
Sewing his extra items into the seams of a padded overcoat, the Auckland-based fashionista was able to evade add-on fees and create an unique garment.
Bruno can confirm it worked; however, the one-off garment is not easily replicated.
Some items were sewn into the fabric of the coat.
"I like pushing the functionality of garments in all my designs, so it was really just an extension of that," he said. "I never intended it as a marketable idea, and while the padding in the body was accessible through Zips, I actually sewed the items of clothing into the sleeves, collar and shoulders."
Overall, the designer managed to disguise 6.8kg and 29 items of clothing in the coat.
Although it was heavy going, he described the coat as a calming weight.
"I wouldn't say I have any plans to make reproductions to sell," he said, calling it a solution to a problem rather than an everyday garment.
Bruno made an animated video to Illustrate the proof of concept and quite how much luggage he could take back with him.
Just 90 minutes from Melbourne, this hot spring retreat might outshine NZ's offerings.