You cannot self-upgrade. If you see an empty first class seat, you can’t just take it. I have never, ever seen it actually work. What I’ve seen is passengers who tried it being embarrassed, and I’ve seen passengers escalate matters when they’re sent to the back and get kicked off the plane. But some are now trying it even though they know they’re going to get kicked out – they just want a free drink before that happens!
Here’s video of a United Airlines passenger being dragged off of a Shanghai – Newark flight after trying to upgrade himself to business class several times and stealing champagne.
And here’s a passenger on a Korean Air flight being dragged out of business class after attempting to self-upgrade. When cabin crew try to get her to move, she chants “US marshal! US marshal!” as though that’s whom she hopes responds. Then they try to move her and she laughs that she’s wearing a seat belt so she’s latched to the seat. After finally being dragged down the aisle, she shouts “nuclear disarmament!”
Like I said, this basically never works. But today I learned that some people know this, and still sit down in first class seats anyway. They figure they’re going to get kicked out, but they’ll just get moved to their seats in back – and probably get a free drink before they do!
Passengers flying from Providence, Rhode Island to Atlanta on Delta sat down in the bulkhread row of first class and settled in. The real passengers assigned to the seats boarded. And they headed to the back.
They quickly get up laugh and say “we are rookies” the flight attendant asks what row they are in and they say 24. They leave their bags and travel back to their row.
A flight attendant shares what these passengers were up to, and it’s not the first time:
[T}he flight attendant comes over and I tell him I’ve never seen anything like that before. He tells me it just happened for the first time to him earlier and that the people sat down, received their pre-flight booze and then said I’m just going to go say hi to my sister in the back of the plane and walked off with the free drink to obviously not return.
As commenters observed, “this is a new “hack” making its way around social media.” In fact, “Flight Attendants HATE this one simple trick!”
It may seem silly to do, but someone facing $10 for a cocktail in coach makes a quick calculation that as long as they don’t put up too much of a fight, apologize and act confused (they were drinking, after all!), it’s a cost savings.
Joke’s on them with domestic carriers like American Airlines, where flight attendants don’t usually bother offering first class passengers predeparture beverages.
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