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Ahead of winter holidays and festive trips away, a flight attendant has now shared a clever travel hack to get an extra bag on board without paying a penny more

Whether it’s a summer holiday or a winter trip away, one thing is always certain and that’s packing with luggage allowance is tricky to get right. Pack too much and you run the risk of having a bag that’s too heavy or won’t fit the cabin luggage standards, but if you pack too light then you run the risk of being forced to wash your clothes whilst away.

Yet it doesn’t have to be so hard, as a flight attendant has now shared a clever travel hack to get an extra bag on board without paying a penny more.

Flight attendant Miguel Muñoz shared a sneaky trick to help passengers dodge extra luggage fees by utilising a duty-free shopping bag, and it’s the perfect trip for your Christmas getaway.

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Miguel’s genius idea reurposes a duty-free bag to carry clothes and other items that won’t fit in your hand luggage, you can essentially sneak an extra bag on board.

According to Miguel, “duty-free bags don’t count as carry-on baggage,” so gate agents tend to turn a blind eye.

To take advantage of this hack, holidaymakers can either bring a duty-free bag from home or purchase one at the airport’s duty-free shop.

Miguel said: “If you have something that doesn’t fit in your suitcase or you want to bring an extra bag on board, here’s the trick.

“All you have to do is carry a duty-free bag. Or ask for one at the duty-free shop and you place whatever you want in the shopping bag. There is obviously limited space, but at least you are bringing an extra bag on the plane with you.”

He added: “Now you know. If you ever find yourself in that situation, just put whatever you want in a duty-free bag. You are welcome!”

Miguel’s trick comes after another hack has gone viral, using a “fake pillow” where passengers use a pillowcase filled with extra items, as the pillow doesn’t typically count as a piece of luggage.

This hack has been shared by hundreds of travellers on social media, who claim that security officers and gate agents rarely bat an eye.

TikTok has also been filled with tips and tricks from savvy travellers all keen to carry more, without the hefty fees for extra baggage. A savvy traveller from Handluggageonly explained on the platform, “Pack all the clothes you need in your backpack but if that person checking you in for your flight turns around and says anything about your bag being overweight and tries to charge you the excess baggage fare, simply pop over to the bathroom and wear as many clothes as possible.

“Technically, no one can say anything about the fact that you just wore your extra clothes on you instead of having them in your luggage and more importantly – they can’t charge you the extra fare as your bag weight should be much more in line.”

Mateusz Kowalewicz, 29, has visited all the ‘New 7 Wonders of the World’ and has ticked off some incredible experiences – but it’s not always smooth sailing

A jet-setting flight attendant has shared the ups and downs of his high-flying career – from lightning strikes and severe sleep deprivation to ticking off the world’s most incredible sights.

Mateusz Kowalewicz first got bitten by the travel bug as a teenager after participating in a school exchange with Israel – marking his very first journey abroad.

He soon started exploring Europe on a shoestring budget, hitchhiking to save money, before finally deciding to become a flight attendant so he could earn while doing what he loved. Mateusz, 29, hails from Białystok, Poland, and now resides in Warsaw, globetrotting for work.

Speaking to Polish media, he said: “It’s very hard to describe a typical month, because every single one is different. My airline operates three types of aircraft, which means it never gets boring, and the roster looks different every month.

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“My biggest travel achievement is visiting all the ‘New 7 Wonders of the World’. I owe a lot of that to my job – I visited four on layovers and flew to another using staff tickets.”

However, it’s not always plain sailing. Mateusz recounted an incident where one flight was struck by lightning, as reported by What’s The Jam. “It felt like someone flashed a camera straight in my eyes. A moment later, we heard from the cockpit that we had to turn back to Warsaw. The aircraft was fine, but logically it’s better to return and take another plane than risk finding out in Rome that the aircraft must be grounded.”

When asked about his biggest bugbear, he didn’t mince his words: “Not being able to fall asleep, especially in the East on long-haul layovers. “I’m a heavy sleeper, so any unexpected wake-up in the middle of the night because of time zones is awful.”

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What he relishes most is the unpredictability. “Sometimes you fly to Chicago on a layover and end up meeting a Polish priest who invites you to an American christening for nearly 200 people – and one of the guests is a passenger you met on a flight a few months earlier. Absolutely incredible!”.

His job has also afforded him the chance to indulge in bucket-list adventures like skydiving in Dubai and taking a seaplane ride in Mauritius.

As for travel dreams still on the list: “I’d like to climb Kilimanjaro, and I can see I’m being drawn towards Africa, which is the continent I’ve explored the least after Australia.”

For those hoping to follow in his footsteps, Mateusz’s advice is straightforward: “Language skills. It’s one of the key elements if you want to work in this profession.

“You must also be 18, have a high school diploma, be able to swim in case of a water landing, and you can’t have tattoos in visible places.”

Have you got a travel story to share? Email us at [email protected]

An easyJet flight attendant has revealed the ‘secret language’ that cabin crew use to communicate with each other while on board a flight

An easyJet flight attendant has spilled the beans on the covert language they use to communicate while onboard. An anonymous member of the budget airline’s cabin crew popped up on their Instagram feed to spill the secrets.

She clarified that, due to the sheer number of passengers on a plane and the length of an aircraft’s fuselage, cabin crew can’t always communicate verbally with each other. This means they have devised a ‘secret language’ for communication.

Interestingly, it is not a spoken language, but more akin to sign language, with various gestures signifying different things. She revealed: “While I’m here on my own I’ll let you into a little secret.

“As cabin crew you may be aware but we do have a secret language on board, a way of communicating to each other when we want food items and with over 200 passengers on board the plane is very long so you may have noticed that if you would like a ham and cheese sandwich we do a croque monsieur, a chicken wrap, and a calzone pizza but don’t tell anyone I told you.”

Whilst mentioning the croque monsieur, she mimicked a crocodile with her hand. For the chicken wrap, she extended an arm out like a chicken wing before rolling her hands together to signify a wrap. Lastly, for the calzone, she placed the heel of her hands together before bringing her palms and fingers together, presumably to illustrate the folding together of a calzone.

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People in the comments section were impressed, with one saying: “Absolutely iconic!”

“We were just talking about this after our flight last month,” said another, while one person said: “I saw a crew member do this to another crew member, I realised it was internal sign language!”

“I often watch the crew doing this trying to work out what they’re on about lol,” one person said. Another said: “Ha ha my Mrs worked a few out on our flight back to MAN from AGP last week.”