Usually I think frontline airline employees don’t do enough to deescalate situations, especially at ultra low cost carriers. However, in this case I can’t help but think it’s deserved.
In this post:
The “pillowcase hack” is ridiculously stupid
Before we talk about this specific incident, let me share some background. The internet is full of people trying to pretend they have insightful “hacks,” because it makes for great clickbait. Along those lines, some people love to promote the concept of the “pillowcase hack” when flying.
Airlines are often strict about carry-on allowances, and that’s particularly true on ultra low cost carriers, which typically only let you take a personal item (and not a full size carry-on) when booking the most basic fare.
There’s a belief out there that taking a pillow onboard a plane won’t count toward your carry-on allowance, since it won’t be stored in the overhead bin or underneath your seat. However, over time that concept has evolved, with some people now removing the pillow from the pillowcase, and instead stuffing the pillowcase with clothes and other items, and treating it like a carry-on, while thinking that they don’t have to pay.
The problem is, if you look at social media, you’d assume that this is some permissible loophole that airlines officially allow, and that there are no risks. This simply isn’t true — I actually don’t know of a single airline in the world that officially states that a pillow doesn’t count as a personal item or a carry-on, even if people get away with it. And I’m just talking about a regular pillow, and not even a pillowcase stuffed with other stuff.
I mean, it’s kind of like saying there’s a “genius hack” to get groceries for free, and that’s to just steal them. So to constantly cover stuff like this without any caveats is doing a disservice to your audience at best, and downright unethical at worst, in my opinion.
Frontier passenger tries “pillowcase hack,” finds out
As flagged by View from the Wing, TikTok user @natashaorganic shared a video from a Frontier Airlines gate, prior to a flight from Orlando (MCO) to Buffalo (BUF). The narrated video, which has been viewed over a million times, revolves around an incident where a passenger tries to pull off the “pillowcase hack.”
The guy shows up at the gate with a pillowcase stuffed full of personal items, and the gate agent reportedly informs him that he’ll have to pay for that as a carry-on. He gets really argumentative, and refuses to pay, claiming it’s “just a pillowcase.” He really doesn’t seem to get it — you’re still not actually officially allowed to bring a pillowcase onboard, over and above the carry-on allowance, but some gate agents will turn a blind eye.
The guy only ends up claiming that he’s willing to pay to take it onboard after the aircraft’s door closes. At that point it’s of course too late. Nonetheless, he tries to force his way onto the plane, at which point the cops are called, and the man is escorted out of the airport.
As the video’s narrator explains, “stop letting these sites, social media, give you tips and tricks, because sometimes it’s not gonna work”
@natashaorganic Stop listening to the internet #airline #travelhacks #pillow #frontier #mco #orlando ♬ original sound – natashaorganic
In general, I find it dismaying the extent to which the internet has become all about clickbait and passing off breaking rules and half-truths as “genius hacks.” As media consumption increasingly shifts to short form videos, I suppose that’s inevitable. You need some real zingers in order to get traffic.
But it’s not just young Gen-Z people on TikTok doing this, but it’s also passed off widely on the internet beyond that. For example, I saw the above story about someone getting in trouble for the “pillowcase hack” on View from the Wing, and Gary talks about how “travel social media” has been “taken over” by this hack. But then I remembered where I actually heard about this hack in the first place. So as you can see, this advice is pretty widespread!
Bottom line
I’ve never written about the “pillowcase hack” before, because I think it’s dumb and just plain bad advice. Yes, some people will stuff a pillowcase with clothes and be able to bring it on a plane, because some gate agents won’t say anything. But that’s not official policy, and all too often, coverage about this doesn’t include caveats about how this isn’t permitted by airlines.
Someone found this out the hard way on a recent Frontier Airlines flight, when they were asked to pay to take their pillow stuffed with things onto the plane. The guy refused until the aircraft door closed, and then offered to pay, but it was too late. He became more aggressive, and then the cops were called.
What do you make of the “pillowcase hack?”
I bought a $19 ticket on Fronteir. I’m gonna wear 3 pairs of pants and 5 shirts then take them off when I get to my seat.
What's going on in the otherwise genteel world of travel blogging that one leading blogger is so publicly attacking another? Inquiring minds want to know!
Professionally, they are trolling each other.
But clickbait is nothing genteel.
It's the root of all evil.
This reminds me of those coats that have a ludicrous number of large pockets purpose designed to flout the rules. Whatever happened to those ? Then there are those who espouse wearing all of your clothes - literally multiple briefs, t-shirts, etc ...
What's actually sad about this is that passengers need to hide stuff in pillowcases in order to avoid being nickle and dimed to death by the crappy airlines! It should be mandated by law the all airlines must allow one free checked bag and one free carry on. Who travels without bringing a suitcase or bag? Virtually no one, unless you're flying somewhere and just staying there for the day. But most travelers are staying...
What's actually sad about this is that passengers need to hide stuff in pillowcases in order to avoid being nickle and dimed to death by the crappy airlines! It should be mandated by law the all airlines must allow one free checked bag and one free carry on. Who travels without bringing a suitcase or bag? Virtually no one, unless you're flying somewhere and just staying there for the day. But most travelers are staying more than a day at their destination, which requires a change of clothes, etc. It's absolutely pathetic that it's come to the point where airlines now charge for luggage rather than just build the cost into the fares. Unbundling doesn't actually decrease costs for customers anyway. If Southwest can include free checked bags and carry ons in their fares, so can everyone else!
A few years ago, I had a job that required me to commute up and down the east coast on my own dime (temporarily). Spirit allowed me to do that for $70 RT, as long as I only carried a personal item.
If Spirit/Frontier needs to charge one group for carry-ons so that another can willingly choose to fly without them for a rock-bottom price, then bring it on and let everyone follow the rules.
...A few years ago, I had a job that required me to commute up and down the east coast on my own dime (temporarily). Spirit allowed me to do that for $70 RT, as long as I only carried a personal item.
If Spirit/Frontier needs to charge one group for carry-ons so that another can willingly choose to fly without them for a rock-bottom price, then bring it on and let everyone follow the rules.
If you give everyone a free carryon, those ridiculously low prices are going away. Give everyone a choice.
The dumbing down of America thanks to tiktok.
The dumbing down of travel blogs due to Gary Leff. Ben, please don't recycle Gary's "content."
I thought people were exaggerating about VFTW, but I just looked it up and today's headline is, "How American Airlines Flight Attendants May Hand The Election To Donald Trump". I've gotta give Gary credit because it must take serious creativity skills to come up with this nonsense on a daily basis.
It’s an insult to his wife and daughter.
Wife’s friend: “What an incredible vacation that sounds like, your husband must be prominent in his field to be able to afford these trips. What does he do exactly?”
Wife: “Um. He peddles less-than-best public offers for credit cards while simultaneously courting internet trolls.”
Daughter’s friend 1: “My daddy just made Partner at Cravath.”
Daughter’s friend 2: “My daddy is a managing director at Goldman...
It’s an insult to his wife and daughter.
Wife’s friend: “What an incredible vacation that sounds like, your husband must be prominent in his field to be able to afford these trips. What does he do exactly?”
Wife: “Um. He peddles less-than-best public offers for credit cards while simultaneously courting internet trolls.”
Daughter’s friend 1: “My daddy just made Partner at Cravath.”
Daughter’s friend 2: “My daddy is a managing director at Goldman Sachs.”
Daughter’s friend 3: “My daddy works from a 100th floor corner office in Hudson Yards.”
Daughter’s friend 2: “Ooh what does he do?”
Daughter’s friend 3: “Managing partner at KKR.”
Daughter: “My daddy- ”
Daughter’s friends in unison: “We know! He’s in the Capital One lounge right now waiting for a delayed commercial flight. We need to go, our dads’ Gulfstream is just waiting on catering at Teterboro and we will be dining on reverse seared grass finished filet mignon on our trip to Italy which we will be well rested for because the aft of the Gulfstream has a full Tempur LuxeAdapt mattress with Frette linens.”
I couldn't agree more. I've stopped reading his blog as religiously as I used to in the past, I only check when I'm bored these days
Gary's headlines and articles are calculated to enflame. Yet, his blog has the second highest site traffic in the genre. It's clear a great number of people lack the brain power to realize they are being pimped.
Which site has the highest traffic?
I would assume TPG
Correct. TPG.
My last couple WN flights the GA announced the limit to carry-ons and specifically called out to people that pillows count. Checked bags are free so that's an easy pivot, but I found the announcements hilarious.
What a sad state of affairs when the GA needs to announce this…
The airport shopping bag, esp. duty free bags used to work for me in the 2000s when I was often moving internationally and had a lot of stuff, but many airlines seemed to crack down on it as an “item”. The best “hack” I’ve seen for ULCC or weight restricted carry-ons in other regions is the travel vest…it’s amazing how much heavy and wadded up crap you can get in there. It’s usually always possible to fit in the overhead on top of roller boards too!
A comment on the other blog saying how he was getting brutally dragged here was deleted. Another example of his inability to handle criticism.
People talk about free speech, yet censorship is everywhere.
The U.S. government may not restrict you from speaking freely.
View From the Wing is not the U.S. government; it's a privately owned Website. The owner may do as he pleases with the content. It's not censorship or a restriction of free speech to do so.
This is not breaking news.
It certainly is censorship. It's not a restriction on your constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech (it's not -> government censorship <-) since the comment section of private publications isn't covered in that guarantee, but the positive removal of any statement is correctly referred to as censorship.
I used to follow Gary. But stopped since he started to switching to clickbait titles on all of his posts. That really annoyed me. Not surprised he's farming the pillow hack crowd now.
It's really sad. He used to have a really nice blog.
My biggest pet peeve with travel influencers is when they say "I just got first class ticket for $146.20!" (or whatever the tax is). It's truly spreading disinformation because people WILL believe that an international first-class tickets really can be purchased for that because they fail to mention the need to redeem the points in the first place. They just show themselves looking all nice, sipping on champagne, and yet, it costs money to get...
My biggest pet peeve with travel influencers is when they say "I just got first class ticket for $146.20!" (or whatever the tax is). It's truly spreading disinformation because people WILL believe that an international first-class tickets really can be purchased for that because they fail to mention the need to redeem the points in the first place. They just show themselves looking all nice, sipping on champagne, and yet, it costs money to get those points! Even if you get one of those holy grail first class flights on ANA, those points cost money to accrue either through spend or butt-in-seat, which many people may not actually be able to afford.
What can you say? A bunch of dumb people talking about something dumb. More and more society looks like a script from a 60s sitcom.
Meh. People have always been dumb everywhere. It’s only in the last decade or so that social media on your phone has brought them into your orbit constantly. It’s hard to stop that stupidity invading your peace these days.
As I said, a pillow case with the pillow removed is a bag. If anyone is dumb enough to say otherwise and turn up with one filled with clothes and others items , they should be blacklisted
What if its a pillow case with a pillow that has all the down removed and replaced with clothes? Is it still a pillow?
I for one am greatful for large swaths of idiots. It ensures that I will always be ahead of the pack. The slowest gazelles get eaten first.
The airport shopping bag strategy IS legit. I have yet to see an airline T&C which counts that as an item.
Stupid.
I have yet to see an airline T&C which counts pillow case as an item either.
What's sad is that even just yesterday on a membership-only forum for airline industry people there was discussion about Gary's irresponsibility and lack of substantive content. Thanks for calling it out.
And having worked for a ULCC, seen people try everything. Pillow is nothing new. People also used to get a bag from Hudson News and cram all their stuff in there then say "oh, it's just my snacks for the flight" to take...
What's sad is that even just yesterday on a membership-only forum for airline industry people there was discussion about Gary's irresponsibility and lack of substantive content. Thanks for calling it out.
And having worked for a ULCC, seen people try everything. Pillow is nothing new. People also used to get a bag from Hudson News and cram all their stuff in there then say "oh, it's just my snacks for the flight" to take on in addition to their free personal item. My agents used to have a "hall of shame" in the break room of here's the latest scam people try. One day, was standing with a colleague from another airline at the gate... he spoke a dialect from India and started laughing. Because a passenger waiting to board with a full roller bag was talking into the phone in same language about how there's too many people at the gate today so she's gonna get caught.
India doesn’t have dialects, it is a country with multiple full blown languages. There is no Indian language.
Anyway, Gary has not cared about his blog for years. The pandemic was a turning point as was the birth of his daughter. Gary has also started a weight loss regimen. Good for him.
The last item of actual value on his blog was his promo code to sign up for the BILT card before its wide...
India doesn’t have dialects, it is a country with multiple full blown languages. There is no Indian language.
Anyway, Gary has not cared about his blog for years. The pandemic was a turning point as was the birth of his daughter. Gary has also started a weight loss regimen. Good for him.
The last item of actual value on his blog was his promo code to sign up for the BILT card before its wide release. Through that card I earn 100,000 points a year from an expense category (residential rent) in which I otherwise could never earn points.
That was 2021. The year is now 2024.
India has over 120 languages and 19000 dialects of which many are grouped under Hindi.
SHOTS FIRED!
This is a well deserved jab at Gary because holy crap is he terrible. As someone else pointed out he's not stupid, he knows exactly what he's doing, so his blog content isn't an accident. He doesn't travel much anymore and can't produce good material, so he drives traffic through clickbait, and he also knows that the racist stuff is the best clickbait, he LOVES posting anything with even a tiny bit of...
SHOTS FIRED!
This is a well deserved jab at Gary because holy crap is he terrible. As someone else pointed out he's not stupid, he knows exactly what he's doing, so his blog content isn't an accident. He doesn't travel much anymore and can't produce good material, so he drives traffic through clickbait, and he also knows that the racist stuff is the best clickbait, he LOVES posting anything with even a tiny bit of racism because his audience can't help themselves.
One time I pointed out to him that many of his posts just conveniently came shortly after you posted about it and he blocked me from being able to comment. I notice now that he frequently does a "As Lucky over at OMAAT reported" or things like that to make it look like you and him are chummy when really he's just trying to piggyback off of your popularity.
Gary had his time and place but it's now time that he figures out a "hack" to retiring his blog.
I’ve come to the conclusion that Gary doesn't care how much damage he does. Which is astounding for someone often quoted by the press as a self proclaimed, “thought leader.” He seems to thrive on these things without any conscience as to the consequences. The latest being the M*GA Hat Karen incident post that if he had taken two minutes to actually dig deeper would have realized the entire thing was staged and a product...
I’ve come to the conclusion that Gary doesn't care how much damage he does. Which is astounding for someone often quoted by the press as a self proclaimed, “thought leader.” He seems to thrive on these things without any conscience as to the consequences. The latest being the M*GA Hat Karen incident post that if he had taken two minutes to actually dig deeper would have realized the entire thing was staged and a product of the disinformation group, AlphaFox.
He is not a stupid guy. You can do the math yourself as to why he does this. And ask yourself if this is the kind of thought leading the world needs right now.
"He is not a stupid guy."
You sure?
"It's that fool on television getting paid to play the fool.". -- Neil Peart ("The Big Money", 1985)
The thing is that Gary doesn't really travel anymore apparently so he has very little organic content to produce. He's figured that the way to keep people engaging with his site and get revenue from it is with outrageous clickbait - I mean his articles are just so, so bad nowadays, it's really unbelievable. Ben even admitted here one day that clickbait / sensationalistic stories drive huge amounts of traffic to his site.
Not...
The thing is that Gary doesn't really travel anymore apparently so he has very little organic content to produce. He's figured that the way to keep people engaging with his site and get revenue from it is with outrageous clickbait - I mean his articles are just so, so bad nowadays, it's really unbelievable. Ben even admitted here one day that clickbait / sensationalistic stories drive huge amounts of traffic to his site.
Not defending Gary's content btw - I understand why he does it but he no longer has any kind of ethics.
Is MAGA word really bad that is not that you have to put asterisk? We as a hardworking legal immigrant are becoming more and more MAGA. We love this country and it's opportunity that was given to us. We only ask for opportunity and not hand out for votes.
@Jeff. I prefer not to use words that are offensive in their entirety.
The US had a president that did the same thing you just mentioned....why would a blogger be any different.
Yes! Get her, Jade!
Why is every tip now called a "hack?"
If I explain to some a shortcut for how to go from the Lincoln Memorial to downtown Bethesda, that's a nice tip. But now it's called a "hack."
THAT IS NOT WHAT HACKING MEANS!
Unless you've gotta hack your way with a machete through a jungle to get there..... exactly.
Proper "clickbait" protocol is not to call it a hack, but rather to refer to it as "one weird trick."
A "hack" is colloquially used to convey that something is being repurposed. A shortcut through NW DC is not a hack unless it involved something other than a car/bus/metro.
Get him
Good for you calling out Gary, that guy is easily the worst "blogger"
Supercedes only by the "vlogger" with million views on YouTube and TikTok.
Just because some beast is kid friendly and handing out money doesn't make him better than the ones who fake a plane crash or shoot fireworks from a helicopter.
Remove the pillow from the case and you have a bag. If people believe this is a way to circumvent the rules they should be banned from travelling.
ZINGGGGGGGGGGG!
This post missed a big opportunity to reinforce that you don't need silly "hacks" when you use miles to book business class ;)
The joys of being a self-anointed tabloid thought leader.
You get clickbait about clickbait complaining a clickbait from the very clickbait that was a clickbait.
However, where's the pillow?
Can't see it on the video.
But his excuse of 'just a pillow' is probably the same when his parents tell others that they're 'just siblings'.
Gotta have some genetic reasons to explain this hack.
@ Eskimo -- I believe the pillow is sitting on the counter at the 43-second mark in the video (about two-thirds of the way through).
Thanks for pointing it out.
Just got TikToked.
I need to get the app just see where exactly is 43-second mark.
Anyway, I see it but can't exactly tell it's the pillow case and I still don't feel it adds up.
He left it there trying to force his way on the plane? Then it disappears when the cops are there?
ouch.
Coming for Gary contradicting himself.. I am HERE FOR IT!
Especially given the bile and negativity that his blog spews out.
Loving your work Lucky - well done.
"Especially given the bile and negativity that his blog spews out."
Don't forget unwarranted arrogance.
Hey, that's just a thought leader thought leading.
Gary has explained that the “thought leader” slogan was tongue in cheek that originated as an inside joke among travel blogging peers. Was it wise for him to actually use the slogan? No. But it’s ignorant to think he meant it seriously.
If he doesn't mean it seriously, he shouldn't have it be the subtitle of his blog prominently displayed at the top of the page. It makes him look like a self-important douche.
But it’s ignorant to think he meant it seriously.
In what way? It's on his site on every page. There's literally ZERO background given to the statement. And you have ZERO source for your claim that it was an "inside joke". To think that it was simply him being a clown is ALSO ignorant. I don't necessarily disagree that he is NOT a thought leader and/or that he doesn't think he is. But lacking any...
But it’s ignorant to think he meant it seriously.
In what way? It's on his site on every page. There's literally ZERO background given to the statement. And you have ZERO source for your claim that it was an "inside joke". To think that it was simply him being a clown is ALSO ignorant. I don't necessarily disagree that he is NOT a thought leader and/or that he doesn't think he is. But lacking any credible reason to believe he doesn't actually feel that way, it can be easily presumed that he does, in fact, call himself a thought leader. Are you a simpleton?