Sneaking into First Class

February 18, 2012 10:59 AM

Has anyone ever tried to sit in an empty First Class seat on a flight when their actual seat is in economy?

I'd like to file this one under "mischief that isn't actually possible" but I'm curious what the safeguards against it are. I assume the crew has a seat list, but do they actually check it?

posted by zain to Travel & Transportation (18 answers total)

They definitely check the numbers in each class. Once they see there's an extra person in first class, they'll check the seat assignments.
posted by Sidhedevil at 11:01 AM on February 18, 2012 [2 favorites]

The crew has a seat list and they use it to address first class passengers by name. Way back when, TWA also tracked frequent first class patrons' favorite drinks. I loved being greeted with "A gin and tonic, Ms Carmicha?" after a hard day... At 6:00 am, not so much.
posted by carmicha at 11:03 AM on February 18, 2012 [5 favorites]

Yes they check it, first class generally has meals (a set number) and the crew will also generally move high tiered status members, regardless of their seating to available first class seats.

Domestically grabbing an available seat isn't really possible in the US due to the amount of business traveller's, however internationally if you are polite and ask a flight attendent they can and will often move you to an available business class seat to make things more comfortable for everyone in general.

I'd always ask, rather than make the flight attendants job more of a hassle.
posted by iamabot at 11:03 AM on February 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

Yes, they have a list and they check it twice. Sometimes you can ask nicely before moving and if it's empty enough or you're charming enough you might get them to let you in. I've found with flying it never hurts to ask. But you need to be friendly and cheerful and take no for an answer. Don't be creepy or passive-agressive.
posted by jeffamaphone at 11:03 AM on February 18, 2012 [2 favorites]

Doing anything unpredictable/against the rules on an airplane is so risky these days that it goes pretty far beyond the bounds of mere mischief. Whereas you might see it as enjoying a comfier experience, crew or other passengers might see you as "that person who is trying to get closer to the cockpit."

There are so few first class seats, and the service to them so attentive, that I doubt you'd even have a chance to get comfortable before someone asked you what you were doing there.
posted by hermitosis at 11:12 AM on February 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

I've been in business on an international flight when someone tried to do this after the lights went down and most was asleep. Even then it didn't take the flight attendants long at all to politely ask him to leave.
posted by FunGus at 11:19 AM on February 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

We once asked to be moved from in front of an exit row because my SO was having knee pain. Much to our surprise, they sat us in the first row of first class. Doesn't hurt to ask nicely.
posted by tamitang at 11:19 AM on February 18, 2012 [2 favorites]

I once lucked in to sitting in first class for part of a flight when I approached a flight attendant with the (true!) woeful tale of suffering terrible menstrual cramps. I think it helped that the flight was a couple of hours old at that point and the meal had already been served - all I wanted was a little room to stretch out and nap, and they didn't have to expend any energy on paying attention to me. Although the nice attendant did bring me a Perrier and some advil. But yeah, always ask - the worst they can say is no.
posted by rtha at 11:23 AM on February 18, 2012 [2 favorites]

If a first-class passenger invites you to join them, the airline will treat you accordingly. (Of course, such invitations can have awkward consequences. In the specific incident I'm recalling, the first-class passenger eventually worked his way around to revealing his oddly specific sexual preference (Iranian Jews) to his guest (an Iranian Jew).)

You can also be bumped up to first-class at the airline's initiative. This happened pretty much all the time when flying internationally using a diplomatic passport. Within the US, I've been bumped up to business class when Alaskan Airlines wanted to make amends to a handful of delayed passengers. (Flight attendants tried to pour so many free drinks down our throats on that short flight that it felt like being recruited for foie gras.)
posted by feral_goldfish at 11:41 AM on February 18, 2012 [5 favorites]

At least domestically, I can't remember the last time I've been on a flight where there were available seats in first class: A lot of people fly with at least the minimum level of elite status, giving them a chance to upgrade to any available.
posted by willbaude at 11:57 AM on February 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

A close friend of mine claims to have pulled this off on a flight where he was issued a boarding pass off the stand-by list, only to find that the seat was double-booked (aka, both my friend and another passenger had a boarding pass for the same seat). My guess is that, if the story is true, the other person booked for that seat was upgraded to first class and wasn't informed, so the head count came out right. It's also possible that the boarding for that flight was such chaos, they didn't check until after take-off (at which point it would be too late to deboard anyone).

This would have been in 2002 or 2003, and my impression is that ticketing has improved over the past 10 years.
posted by muddgirl at 12:21 PM on February 18, 2012

Also, dress well. When we used to fly standby, we always had to dress nicely (no jeans, etc.), but it also allowed up to upgrade to first class when there was room.
posted by Vaike at 12:34 PM on February 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

My boyfriend swapped seats with me after he got upgraded and I didn't. I got "you're definitely not Mr. Boyfriend" from the stewardess.
posted by anaelith at 1:29 PM on February 18, 2012

Highly, highly unlikely to get upgraded from domestic to Business/First Class by how nice you dress, how polite you are, how much pain you're in, how witty you might be, etc. If you sneak in, it's 'theft' in the eyes of the Flight Attendants, thus the immediate eviction back to cattle class.

A Biz/First class seat is typically 4x the price of a domestic U.S. seat ($2500 +) and 8x International (up to $10,000 or more). This is a premium luxury product; Flight attendants have to massively justify an upgrade of a passenger that does not have either airline status, or paid a full fare ticket - and even then it's a shot in the dark.
posted by Kruger5 at 2:04 PM on February 18, 2012

They do indeed check the seat list. If you are discovered (this technique is known as 'self-upgrading'), you will be invited, politely, to return to your coach seat. If you refuse, at a minimum you will be invited to pay the 'walk-up' first class fare rate - at a minimum. Even more likely, you will be met by members of the local constabulary upon arrival, as what you have done is the equivalent of shoplifting.
posted by scolbath at 2:54 PM on February 18, 2012

Kruger5: "Highly, highly unlikely to get upgraded from domestic to Business/First Class by how nice you dress, how polite you are, how much pain you're in, how witty you might be, etc."

Eh, op-ups aren't that rare. I had four in three years before I elite-qualified on AA and I was only taking 3-4 trips a year then. Dress nicely, be kind, and volunteer to take the bump when they're oversold. At least that's how it used to work. Now that all the airlines have free space-available upgrades for (some) elites, it probably isn't so easy.

Just last year my SO, who is a lowly Gold on AA, asked nicely and had a GA upgrade her dad. (she and I were using her stickers, but AA policy only allows one companion upgrade)

But yes, they notice when you sneak in. If you actually know someone, are having a conversation with them, and aren't making things difficult at service time the FAs will cut some slack, but you will eventually be asked to go back from whence you came.

P.S. Being willing to take denied boarding compensation makes flying really cheap. I once turned a single trip on Delta that I didn't even pay for into a long string of free roundtrips thanks to further bumps. Their yield management used to be completely terrible.
posted by wierdo at 4:33 PM on February 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

When I was in college, I was flown somewhere as part of a grad school recruitment thing. Two leg journey--first leg in a biggish jet, second in a teeeny turboprop. First time I'd flown aside from a band trip in high school, and was very starry-eyed about the whole thing.

Somehow, I mixed up my tickets, and was looking at the turboprop seating number when I got on the big plane, meaning that my tuboprop-leg seat 3A (or whatever it was) put me smack in the middle of the first class seats. Wow, I thought, these grad schools really plump on the travel arrangements! What the hell did I know?

The stewardess asked to see my ticket after I sat down, I handed her the same wrong one I'd been looking at when I got on. She HAD to have realized my mistake, but between the empty seat that I just happened to sit in, and the fact that I had obviously fallen off the turnip truck, she didn't say a word and was very nice to me. I did realize my mistake when I got on the second flight, but by then it was too late to do anything about it.

So apparently it's possible, you've just got to have the right combination of dopeyness and luck.
posted by tchemgrrl at 5:12 PM on February 18, 2012 [3 favorites]

Years ago, my family flew to Copenhagen, with a stop in Amsterdam, at which well over 3/4 of the plane emptied. For the hop, the cabin crew were certainly kind enough to let us all relocate to window seats ... but firmly shook their heads at first class.
posted by dhartung at 11:55 PM on February 18, 2012