An American flight attendant has unveiled her tips on how to get a free upgrade on flights, claiming to reveal some tried and tested tactics for passengers to enjoy a fancier in-flight experience.
While budget airlines like RyanAir and EasyJet don’t tend to have business and first class options, a lot of long-haul airlines still do. And, many attest that it’s well worth it for those who want to enjoy a slice of luxury in the sky.
Although it’s difficult to tell how many travellers bag themselves free upgrades these days, according to insiders, it does still happen if you’re lucky.
In many cases, upgrades are reserved for loyalty cardholders and frequent flyer program members, but savvy passengers can also get in on the action if they play their cards right.
According to Cierra Mistt, one of her best first-class ‘secrets’ is booking a seat in the last row of the plane, as those are the passengers who are most likely to be moved around the plane if they need to re-shuffle the aircraft for weight.
“Sit in the very last row,” she tells her social media followers. “Now you might be thinking that sounds a little bit weird, but let me tell you why.”
“On flights that aren't full, we normally have to move passengers for weight and balance purposes, and when we do that, it's normally from the back to the front.”
She added: “If that's the case, the flight attendants are going to choose the people in the very last row to go up front because they can then sit down there after doing their service because it's a lot more comfy to sit in those passenger seats than it is the jump seat.”
She then urges her hundreds of thousands of followers to keep that hack on the “down low,” because flight attendants aren’t actually meant to take those last row seats.
But what if your flight is fully booked, which is often the case these days? The social media influencer also had some tips for those flights, too.
One of the best ways to get a free upgrade on a fully-booked flight is to accept a trade for a different flight, helping to make the airline staff’s lives much easier.
“Number two is even easier, and it's for full flights which happen a lot nowadays,” Ms Mistt explained.
“You'll know if your flight is full or even overbooked because the gate agents will normally make an announcement at the beginning telling you that it's overbooked and that they need volunteers,” she added.
When passengers hear flight attendants ask if anyone can swap their flight, she suggests going up to the counter and naming your price in case while also requesting that the attendant books you a first-class seat for the trouble.
According to the influencer, this trick works in 99 per cent of cases.
While some of her followers were impressed with the tips, others weren’t sold.
“This might be a sales tactic to have people actually buy those seats lol,” wrote one sceptic, whereas another added: “None of this actually works.”
