Back in my student days, I found I had accumulated far too much stuff when I was returning from doing my work experience in Germany, and had to do something similar.

I packed my bags until nothing more would fit - and then I wore all the clothes that were left over. Then I hauled all my bags to the airport and arrived hours before check-in opened. I thought that, as I was obviously a few kilos over my luggage allowance, if I was one of the first to check in I might somehow avoid any extra charge.

Luckily, they didn't charge me, but the lady at checkin told me that the flight to Dublin had been selected for "extra security" that day - which involved all passengers being patted down. I'll never forget the look of surprise on the security guard when he patted me down - as I recall, I was wearing at least 3 pairs of jeans.