A Russian man, Mikhail Galin, has been stripped of all his air miles with the airline Aeroflot after he smuggled his overweight pet cat onto his flight from Moscow to Vladivostok, The Guardian reported.

According to Galin's Facebook and Instagram posts on Nov. 6, his cat was found to have been 2kg above the airline's cabin limit of 8kg, when being weighed at the check-in desk.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B4g4L1EB_4w/

BBC reported that this meant Viktor would have to be placed in the cargo hold instead, as per the airline's rules.

Came up with a plan to swap his cat during check-in

However, as Galin was unwilling to do so, he came up with a plan to sneak his cat in by swapping his pet with a similar cat of a lighter weight instead.

As such, a day after his initial rejection, he returned to the airport with Viktor, a smaller cat named Phoebe, and Phoebe's owners, The Guardian reported.

BBC highlighted that Galin then checked in to business class with the "cat double", who passed the limit at the check-in desk with a weight of 7kg.

Galin then returned the Phoebe to its owners before proceeding to board the plane with Viktor.

Airlines launches investigation after Facebook post

Aeroflot subsequently launched an investigation after Galin posted two photos of Viktor in the plane on social media, including one of the cat in a bag behind a glass of sparkling wine.

Speaking to AFP, the airline stated that it had dropped Galin from its frequent flier programme and annulled his air miles, which reportedly came up to 400,000.

"Aeroflot has taken the decision to take this passenger out of its frequent flyer programme. All of the miles collected during his time in the programme will be annulled."

The airline added that it had also confirmed the cat swap with CCTV footage of the incident.

In response, Galin appeared to have accepted his penalties in good humour by sharing a follow-up post of Viktor as a kitten, "when his weight still met the requirements of the air carrier."

Top photo collage from Mikhail Galin Facebook

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