This TikTok Hack Might Just Be the Best Travel Secret for Overpackers

As the saying goes, the best advice is found on the pillow. But in this case, the solution is the pillow itself, as one TikTok user displays what may be the most brilliant travel packing hack ever.

In 2021, Anya Iakovlieva, who goes by the handle @nolimitua, posted a video of herself stuffing clothes into a pillowcase and successfully using it as extra baggage space on a flight. "The best travel hack ever!!! 'Pillow' flies for free," she wrote on the post, which has gone viral, racking up more than 16 million views since it went up on Sept. 18.

In the first of the three shots, she's seen packing clothes into a pillow featuring a zipper closure, as an American passport sits on the bed. The next shows her maskless at an airport terminal, pulling a large, wheeled suitcase with the pillow on top and turning to the camera to signal "Shh!" to keep her secret. Finally, she's seen calmly sitting on board, holding the pillow on her lap and winking at the camera to prove that it went through undetected.

Iakovlieva also posted the video on her Instagram page, tagging it in Istanbul, suggesting she may have successfully brought the extra "luggage" aboard an international flight.

To amplify the sneakiness factor, she set her TikTok post to a dramatic music track from Bad Girls Club, with the audio saying, "Nobody's going to know," while another voice replies, "They're gonna know," and the first responding, "How would they know?"

One TikTok user commented, "Now, everyone will know. By 2022, airlines will start charging to take a pillow aboard," to which Iakovlieva responded with tears of joy emojis.

Another questioned whether it would really work, saying "Come on, they don't even allow a handbag/purse on some flights, there's no way a pillow is gonna fly," to which Iakovlieva said, "6 times test and worked so far." While she appears to have had a checked bag and no other luggage, it's possible that her successful trick may have been a result of airlines considering it her personal item.

But perhaps the most on-point comment went to another user, who said, "Bring extra deodorant because you'll be sweating carrying that around."