One passenger was banned from their flight after attempting to get away with a viral packing trick.
Inside Orlando International Airport, an eager flyer, who thought they could hack the system, showed up to his flight with a pillowcase in hand. Trying to sidestep the airline’s carry-on rules, the man filled the thin sheet with his belongings, arguing the item was a pillow.
On TikTok, user @natashaorganic captured the interaction between the ticketed passenger and the airline staff. She documented their argument until the airport police showed up and escorted him away from the gate.
At the start, the man, wearing a white beanie and black backpack, is seen speaking with an airline attendant in an orange traffic vest. Their voices are muffled, making it hard to decipher what exactly was said.
“Stop letting these social media sites give you tips and tricks because sometimes it’s not going to work, okay?” the TikTok user said. “This dude was trying to take in a pillowcase full of clothing and other items, which he is stating is simply just a pillowcase.”
Natasha said it was obvious that the passenger wasn’t just bringing a pillowcase or a normal pillow. What’s more, the man was offered the opportunity to pay the appropriate fee for an additional carry-on, but he declined. However, towards the end of the video, the man can be heard saying he’s willing to pay. Unfortunately, it was too late.
“He waited all the way up until they closed the doors to be like, ‘Okay, I’ll pay for it now,’” Natasha explained. “And then he tried to like bogart his way into the freaking, I don’t know what that’s called, before you get into the plane.”
She added: “And they were like, ‘Bro, back away. We gave you your chance and you didn’t pay for it.’ And they ended up calling the cops on him. And he ended up getting escorted out.”
Natasha finished her narration by urging viewers to “stop listening to the internet”, blaming the passenger’s faith in a travel trick he found online for why he was ultimately kicked out of the airport.
A few months before this incident, the pillowcase hack went viral on TikTok, urging travelers to stuff the sheet with clothes to avoid paying a carry-on fee.
On Reddit, anonymous users warned others not to try the trick, admitting they knew people who hadn’t gotten away with it.
“I don’t know. In SFO, the gate ladies told us we had to put our pillows in our bags,” one person admitted, while another said: “I think budget airlines consider a pillow to be a personal item. I concur with wearing lots of clothes and shoving things into your jacket as the tried and true method.”