A traveller has shared her top tips for getting a free upgrade which she claims has worked when flying with airlines such as Emirates.
Getting an upgrade on a flight is notorisouly tricky, however, there are some things you can try to increase your chances. That’s according to traveller Eloise Fouladgar, who shared her clever tricks on Instagram.
Her first hack is to sign up with your airline’s frequent flyer program a month or two before your flight and give them a call to make sure you are registered in their system.
“Call again a few weeks later and request a bulkhead seat,” Eloise then advised. “Bulkhead seats are the seats you see near the emergency exit with more leg room.
“These seats usually aren’t available before 24 hours before take off but the purpose of the call is to pop up on the airlines system. Now, don’t actually book or pay for anything, you only want to get logged into their system again.”
Then on the day of the flight you should “dress to impress” and avoid wearing tracksuits, jogging bottoms or hoodies.
Make sure you’re polite when checking into the flight, and subtly let them know you are a frequent flyer member, according to Eloise. She suggested asking if you’re going to get miles from the flight you’re about to board on your new account.
She added that you should not outright ask for an upgrade. She continued: “Mention to them you’ve called many times about a bulkhead seat upgrade and some of them will have that logged on their system. There is a chance they may upgrade you to business class from here.”
Eloise added that these tips won’t work if the plane isn’t full and explained: “Airlines tend to sell more tickets than they have seats to ensure a full flight. What happens when everyone shows up… Economy class gets crammed and staff are allowed to make room by offering a few people business class.”
However, after these tips were shared on Instagram some shared that they were skeptical, with one commenter writing: “lol this is absolutely not how it works. You can either buy a ticket or get upgraded by using credits/points. Generally priority goes to higher status members first.”
And another penned: “Ahhh yes because you don’t have to spend any money for a higher skywards tier…. None of this is a free upgrade at all [laughing emoji] plus free upgrades on emirates went out the window many many years ago.”