British man wears 10 layers of clothing to dodge baggage fee; gets barred from two flights

A man claimed he was recently turned away from a British Airways flight in Iceland after wearing "all" his clothes so he could skip the £90 (US$124) baggage fee. 

Ryan Carney Williams, an artist who goes by the name Ryan Hawaii, wrote on his Twitter page on Jan 10 that he was "being held" at Iceland's main Keflavik airport because he had no baggage for his clothes, which he later put on.

"They still won't let me on," he said in the post, which included a video of him at the check-in counter. 

"Can you explain why I can't get on the flight," Hawaii can be heard saying on the video as a member of staff holds her hand up to block the camera.

The 15-second video also shows security officers asking him to turn off his camera, saying: "Do we need to 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

A second video posted on the same day shows Hawaii wrapped up in layers of clothing. He was wearing a total of 10 shirts and eight pairs of trousers, according to The Telegraph.  

The tweet was followed with another saying he was arrested and "maced". 

The ordeal did not end there. 

The next day, Hawaii took to Twitter again to say he was turned away from another flight to the UK by EasyJet. In the video, he said it was because he was "disruptive yesterday apparently".

Reports said Hawaii eventually got home on a Norwegian airline. 

British Airways said the decision to deny boarding for Hawaii "was absolutely not based on race", The Telegraph reported, citing a spokesperson from the airline. 

“We do not tolerate threatening or abusive behaviour from any customer, and will always take the appropriate action," the spokesperson was quoted as saying. 

...[ Continue to next page ]