Travel Writer fakes Baby Bump to avoid Extra Luggage fees by Jetstar

A travel writer was recently busted at the Australian airport for faking her baby bump in order to avoid extra luggage. Rebecca Andrews, who is a travel writer, decided to devise a plan in order to avoid paying around $60 as extra luggage charges. She faked her own pregnancy and discussed the incident in one of her articles published on an Escape travel website. 

Andrews devise a plan to ‘fight the system" to avoid luggage fees

According to Andrews, the strict luggage rules in certain airlines drive the passengers to take extreme measures in order to avoid the fees. She also devised a similar hack and was busted. She told international media that she safely got her ticket and luggage scanned, and was approaching her flight when she dropped her ticket and the secretly kept laptop got exposed. In her article, she discussed how she decided to "fight the system" to avoid extra luggage fees that are charged by Jetstar. The article was published on October 24. 

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In the article, Andrew discusses the plight of passengers who travel by Jetstar. She said, ‘Their staff [wanders] around with scales at the boarding gate, so you can’t sneak things into your luggage at the last minute because they’ll definitely re-weigh your bags,” due to which several passengers are asked to pay luggage fees even if the luggage is only 2 pounds above the estimated weight. 

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Nine steps to avoid baggage charges

Rebecca Andrew also posted the video on her Instagram handle explaining the nine steps to fake pregnancy in order to avoid the baggage charges. The video demonstrated her plan inside her Sydney hotel room, a day before she was to board the flight. She repeated the process again at Sydney airport. She wrote, I walked very erectly (TIP: you have to keep your shoulders back, you’ll find out why in a second) to the gate, and found I was the LAST person to board my flight. Which was my ONLY mistake — the staff were all paying me attention. Andrew pointed out that in hurry she dropped her ticket and while picking it up, her laptop poked and she was caught. She wrote, "I should have told her I had on a back brace, but hindsight, hey? I freaked out and blabbed on myself". 

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Airline staff aware of all the tricks 

On the other hand, the spokesperson of Jetstar told international media that the airline staff is well-versed with every trick and asserted that most of the passengers are comfortable paying extra luggage fees. After being buster, Andrews had to pay a fine of $60 and eventually boarded the plane. In the end, she wrote, “But 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.”

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