Woman saves £70 by shipping her clothes instead of checking in bag on flight
A traveller has shared her innovative way to evade pricey luggage fees on a recent trip with Spirit Airlines.
Sarah Rachul travelled to Disney World in Orlando with the low-cost US carrier in January.
But instead of forking out $124 (£103) in return baggage fees, she opted to ship her personal belongings directly to the resort using FedEx.
In a video shared to TikTok, Ms Rachul can be seen receiving and unpacking the box.
“I shipped a box of clothes to Disney World for $28 (£23) instead of giving it to Spirit Airlines as a checked bag and paying for the baggage fee and this is how it went,” she begins.
The medium sized box held seven tops, jackets and two bags.
@thesarahrachul my new favorite hack for traveling #spiritairlines #luggagehack #spirithack #cheaptravel #cheaptok
♬ Hey, Mickey! - Baby Tate
“Look at everything I was able to fit in this box and it's only gonna cost me another $28 (£23) to ship it back,” she says.
“Best money spent ever.”
The video, which has been viewed over 850,000 times, attracted comments from some users concerned that the parcel would not arrive in time, leaving holidaymakers stranded without their clothes.
“If you plan ahead it works so well!” wrote Ms Rachul. “I shipped this on Friday and it arrived Tuesday, so 48 hours ahead of my arrival.”
Another wrote: “You can also go on Amazon and ship snacks and water to the resort a few days before you arrive and save a ton of money.”
One user wrote: “I’ve had way too many packages lost to do this”, prompting another to reply: “The way airlines are losing luggage recently this is probably the best way to guarantee you'll actually have clothes.”
The travel hack is the latest creative solution by passengers to avoid paying expensive baggage fees while flying.
In 2019, a Filipino passenger whose luggage exceeded the weight limit at the airport opted to wear as many of her clothes as possible.
Gel Rodriguez posted a photograph of herself dressed in at least three visible pairs of trousers and seven tops to Facebook, which swiftly went viral.
She claimed that the heavily layered outfit saved her 2.5kg in precious weight.
Earlier this month, an easyJet passenger resorted to breaking his own suitcase in a bid to avoid paying excess baggage fees.
The man was filmed snapping the wheels off his case at Edinburgh airport, after being unable to fit the bag into the airline’s measuring frame.