Non-topics
Learn from this Man's Mistake: Don't Wear All Your Clothes to Avoid a Baggage Fee
Spoiler: It didn't end well
January 17 2018 2:42 PM EST
January 17 2018 10:56 PM EST
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Spoiler: It didn't end well
A lot of us have joked about strapping on an extra pair of pants and a few extra shirts in order to avoid a baggage fee, but few of us have actually done it, but one man learned the hard way that this track hack doesn’t always go as planned.
A man flying to Iceland tried to avoid paying a baggage fee by wearing ten shirts, eight pairs of pants, and two other items of clothing draped on his shoulders. Not only did the traveler, who goes by the alias “Ryan Hawaii,” look like a complete weirdo at Keflavik International Airport, he also wasn’t allowed to board his flight.
The entire incident appears on his Twitter (we’re smelling a get-some-more-followers stunt), but it’s still rather amusing. Hawaii claims that he didn’t have enough money to pay for the excess baggage fee and was told by an airline rep to wear his clothes.
"They're really having me dress like this to go on, and they won't even let me go on," he said to his followers.
When he wasn’t allowed to board, another video shows him asking a gate agent why he couldn’t. The agent tells him he’s not allowed to film and that he will call the police.
@British_Airways hi being held at Iceland Keflavik airport because I had no baggage put all the clothes on and they still won't let me on. Racial profiling? Or..... pic.twitter.com/NKgpe1cPFP
— Ryan Hawaii (@RYAN_HAWAII) January 10, 2018
The incident made the news in Iceland, with the Iceland Monitor reporting that it wasn’t the extra clothing that was the issue, but his rude attitude that prevented him from boarding.
The story gets worse for Hawaii, though. Police were called, and he was pepper sprayed and then arrested.
A British Airways spokeswoman told The Washington Post about their baggage fee. “We give our customers a wide range of fares to choose from to meet their needs…We explained our policy to our customer, and offered him an alternative flight to London."
Hawaii took his chances the following day and was once again denied. "I was disruptive yesterday, apparently," Williams said. "I can't board this flight again to go home. Trying to call my mom. Trying to call my dad. Trying to call my stepdad. Trying to call my brother."
Why this time? An easyJet captain didn’t want to take his or her chances on him.
"The Captain and the ground crew were concerned about reports from the previous day so we provided a refund and he traveled with another airline," easyJet spokeswoman Ruth Bishop told The Post in an e-mail.
The lessons here are a) suck it up and pay the baggage fee b) be super-nice if you plan on wearing all of your clothes.