Train GraphicClick on the map to explore geographics
 
I need help
FAQ
Emergency
About .
No recent travel & transport from BBC stories as at 21:35 17 May 2026
Read about the forum [here].
Register [here] - it's free.
What do I gain from registering? [here]
 20/05/26 - WWRUG meeting, Trowbridge
05/06/26 - EPF Annual Meeting
20/06/26 - Hastings Diesel at Paignton ?
04/07/26 - Railfuture AGM

On this day
17th May (1876)
First through trains Exeter to Plymouth via Okehampton and Tavistock (link)

Train RunningShort Run
20:59 Exmouth to Paignton
PollsThere are no open or recent polls
Abbreviation pageAcronymns and abbreviations
Stn ComparatorStation Comparator
Rail newsNews Now - live rail news feed
Site Style 1 2 3 4
Next departures • Bristol Temple MeadsBath SpaChippenhamSwindonDidcot ParkwayReadingLondon PaddingtonMelksham
Exeter St DavidsTauntonWestburyTrowbridgeBristol ParkwayCardiff CentralOxfordCheltenham SpaBirmingham New Street
May 17, 2026, 21:50:17 *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Forgotten your username or password? - get a reminder
Most recently liked subjects
[97] New Oxford - Bristol direct service, ongoing developments and ...
[96] Some good examples of how they do it in Germany
[53] Swindon <-> Westbury service updates and amendments, ongoing d...
[49] Cardiff bride takes Transport for Wales train to get to weddin...
[44] If it's Sunday it must be ...
[30] Bristol Airport Megabus experience left disabled woman 'in tea...
 
News: the Great Western Coffee Shop ... keeping you up to date with travel around the South West
 
   Home   Help Search Calendar Login Register  
Pages: [1]
  Print  
Author Topic: Cardiff woman dodges flight luggage fee by posting her clothes  (Read 1074 times)
Chris from Nailsea
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 21919



View Profile Email
« on: March 03, 2026, 03:16:40 »

From the BBC» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Quote
I dodged flight luggage fees by posting my clothes

[Image from here is not available to guests]
Laura received thousands of likes and comments after sharing her savvy hack on social media

A "frugal" woman has been hailed as a money-saving "genius" after posting a month's worth of clothing for £2.59 to avoid a £30 luggage charge on a flight.

Laura Poole, 33, from Cardiff, squeezed her clothes into a gym bag, which she wrapped in a carrier bag before dropping it off at her local Tesco Express InPost locker.

Laura, who flew from Bristol to Glasgow on February 22 for a month on business, shipped "at least" five outfits including suit jackets and dresses, saving £27.41 on the trip.

The confidence trainer sent the parcel on the Thursday evening before her Sunday morning flight and it arrived safely in Glasgow just after she arrived in the city.

[Image from here is not available to guests]
Laura threw suit jackets, trousers and dresses into her gym bag before wrapping it up inside a Lidl carrier bag to post at her local Tesco

Inspired by Vinted and its parcel shipping process, Laura has received thousands of comments since sharing the hack on social media and been hailed a "genius". She said she had "better things to spend her money on than really expensive baggage fees" and had used the travel hack before "so I knew it worked".

"I've always been really frugal," she added. The hack led to others sharing their top tips to save money when travelling, from stuffing clothes into a neck cushion to wearing cargo trousers with large pockets for extra storage.

Laura also packed enough clothes in her cabin backpack to last her two to three days. "I would not post anything that I loved. That stuff goes in my backpack," she said. "My thought process is if anything goes wrong, or it doesn't arrive in time, I've got time to buy new clothes."

Laura, a public speaker and trainer, said her appearance mattered when she was working. "I need to look good. Suit jackets, trousers, all sorts - I threw it all in, dresses as well," she said.

She said she planned to use the same posting method when she returned from the trip, and had been amazed by the reaction to her post. "There are always trolls whenever anything goes that big and people are always negative, but overall I've never been called a genius so much in my life."

Logged

William Huskisson MP (Member of Parliament, or Mile Post (a method of measuring the railway in miles and chains from a starting point - usually London), depending on context) was the first person to be killed by a train while crossing the tracks, in 1830.  Many more have died in the same way since then.  Don't take a chance: Stop, Look, Listen.

"Level crossings are safe, unless they are used in an unsafe manner."  Discuss.
Witham Bobby
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 966



View Profile
« Reply #1 on: March 03, 2026, 11:25:14 »

Highly reminiscent of the old PLA - Passengers Luggage in Advance - system.

You'd take your luggage to the departure station a day or two before you travelled.  Dropped it off and paid a not huge fee.  Labelled up with the destination station and PLA labels.

When you later arrived at the destination station, your lugage would be waiting for you to claim, at the parcels office at smaller stations, or the luggage office of bigger places

The luggage was conveyed by parcels services.  Either dedicated parcels trains (remember those?), or in the guards van of passenger trains
Logged
PrestburyRoad
Transport Scholar
Sr. Member
******
Posts: 295


View Profile
« Reply #2 on: March 03, 2026, 12:00:44 »

PLA also included the additional option of collection and delivery, which made it a door-to-door service.  I remember using this when I was a student in the early 1970s and my parents had no other way of getting my trunk to and from university at the beginning and end of each academic year.  Going further back, my mother used the same service and the very same trunk in the same way in the 1930s.  I still have the trunk stored away in my garage.
Logged
bobm
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 10651



View Profile
« Reply #3 on: March 03, 2026, 14:06:17 »

I did a variation of that on my All Line Rover tours, posted my clothes home as used them.   In theory it meant my luggage got lighter as I went, in practice the space was filled by souvenirs.
Logged
Ralph Ayres
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 492


View Profile
« Reply #4 on: March 03, 2026, 17:55:56 »

To me it sort of makes sense that it's cheaper that way. The clothes have several days to be carried by the most cost-effective and efficient means rather than space having to be provided at the same time as the passenger is travelling.  It's clearly less convenient though and I'm glad the railways haven't generally tightened up on luggage carrying, although Lumo have started down that slippery slope.
Logged
Noggin
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 666


View Profile
« Reply #5 on: March 04, 2026, 12:12:22 »

I knew a US management consultant who did something similar in the 1990s when he was on road trips in order to travel light.

He'd only pack a few overnight things and spare underwear, FedEx-ing clean shirts to himself at the hotels he was staying in along the way.

Carbon Footprint? We didn't really think of that back then.
Logged
Do you have something you would like to add to this thread, or would you like to raise a new question at the Coffee Shop? Please [register] (it is free) if you have not done so before, or login (at the top of this page) if you already have an account - we would love to read what you have to say!

You can find out more about how this forum works [here] - that will link you to a copy of the forum agreement that you can read before you join, and tell you very much more about how we operate. We are an independent forum, provided and run by customers of Great Western Railway, for customers of Great Western Railway and we welcome railway professionals as members too, in either a personal or official capacity. Views expressed in posts are not necessarily the views of the operators of the forum.

As well as posting messages onto existing threads, and starting new subjects, members can communicate with each other through personal messages if they wish. And once members have made a certain number of posts, they will automatically be admitted to the "frequent posters club", where subjects not-for-public-domain are discussed; anything from the occasional rant to meetups we may be having ...

 
Pages: [1]
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.2 | SMF © 2006-2007, Simple Machines LLC Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!
This forum is provided by customers of Great Western Railway (formerly First Great Western), and the views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that the content provided by one of our posters contravenes our posting rules via admin@railcustomer.info. Full legal statement (here).

Jump to top of pageJump to Forum Home Page