There’s no such thing as a free lunch, and no matter what the internet tries to tell you, there’s no such thing as a free upgrade on a plane anymore.
You can’t hack your way to the pointy end of the plane by wearing a collared shirt or flirting with your flight attendant. You won’t get a flat bed if you ask nicely at the gate, and no one will offer Dom Perignon as a pre-departure drink just because you think you have a strategic check-in time.
“It’s just not going to happen,” Brett Snyder, author of the blog Cranky Flier and owner of the travel agency Cranky Concierge, told me.
Part of the problem is that planes are simply fuller now than they used to be, and airlines have gotten smarter about pricing their seats.
“First class rates used to be so high that people wouldn’t buy them, and instead you just had huge numbers of elite upgrades and all different kinds of people who didn’t pay for it, they just got it as an extra,” Snyder said. “At some point the airlines realized that if we start pricing this as a fare increase, we can get people to actually pay for these seats. Now you have far fewer seats available for an upgrade because people are buying.”
As someone who has paid cash to upgrade more than once, I can vouch for this. Suppose the price is reasonable and I am generous to myself at the check-in counter. In that case, I’m happy to spend the extra money to guarantee myself a more comfortable seat, especially on a long flight.
It also cuts the other way. I once flew from New York to Paris overnight and was willing to spend a few hundred dollars to upgrade myself to a lounge chair at the gate if the option was available. The airline charged me almost $1,000 to upgrade, and the seats were occupied by non-paying passengers who worked for the airline instead. From the perspective of the airline’s bottom line and my own comfort, that was a poor pricing decision.
“If people had too many options to upgrade travelers at the gate (for free) or whatever it was, that was probably something that left money on the table for them,” Snyder said.
So, how can you get an upgrade? There are no hacks, but here is my advice.
Pay
“The best way to get a premium seat is to pay for it. This isn’t rocket science, this is pretty basic,” Snynder told me. “That’s what it comes down to. Most of the seats and most of the people sitting in the forward cabins pay for it. That’s the best way to make sure you get it.”
You just can’t count on getting an upgrade when so many people are willing and able to pay for the luxury. Airlines now also price their premium cabins more liberally. Business travel has still not fully returned to pre-pandemic levels, but there is strong and steady demand in the premium leisure segment, and airlines have taken note. They priced things to entice people to buy on their personal travels, even if their company doesn’t foot the bill.
You can of course pay right at the start of your booking by purchasing a premium ticket when you first receive your flight, but you should also keep an eye out for cash upgrade offers right up to departure time. You never know what the gods of airline revenue management will make available.
Payment (but different)
“But Zach,” I hear you say, “I’m an ultra-elite frequent flyer and always get free upgrades.”
To which I say: No, you don’t.
You may not pay out of pocket for those upgrade benefits at the gate, but that doesn’t mean you won’t pay for them at all. To get frequent flyer status, you’ll have to spend a lot of money with the airline or an even bigger amount on one of the co-branded credit cards, which will likely also come with a hefty annual fee.
Cruise height: Don’t bother with an airline loyalty program if you are this traveler.
You’ll pay for that upgrade one way or another, even if not directly.
Frequent flyers also tend to have a lot of loyalty points, which they have to pay again to earn, but those points or miles can be useful for securing upgrades.
“You can also use miles to upgrade even if you don’t have a status,” says Snyder. In addition to cash upgrades, airlines often offer you the opportunity to redeem miles to purchase premium cabins.
Pay (but less)
Maybe you’ve decided that it’s just too much effort or too financially burdensome to upgrade yourself to Business Class, and that’s fine. You have other options.
“You can always pay for seats with extra legroom, but depending on the airline that could be a very modest upsell,” Snyder said.
It’s usually not that expensive to upgrade from a regular economy seat to an economy seat with extra legroom, and if all you care about is a little more knee room, this can be a good option.
Have hope
“Don’t expect to be able to game the system and find this magical loophole. It’s just not going to happen. So find out what you’re agreeing to and make sure you have that arrangement in place before you go to the airport,” Snyder said. “If you book something that you absolutely cannot tolerate – you are 2 meters tall and book a coach on Spirit, then don’t do that.”
If you’re determined not to pay anything above the lowest economy fare, you can always pray for an empty adjacent seat.
Zach Wichter is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in New York. You can reach him at zwicher@usatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Money is the hack to getting your flight upgrade | Cruise height
