UK Ferry Tickets

I used to love the airline, Pan Am. Check-in staff would, without hesitation, offer journalists upgrades on flights across the Atlantic. We weren’t just pushed up into business either, but often allowed to sit in plush first class chairs.

In those days, the big leather seats didn’t convert into beds, but you did have what seemed like acres of room around you. Many Pan Am stewardesses were, shall I say, mature, as they had been with the airline for several years. I often felt that they should put their feet up in the comfy seats and I should be the one waiting on them.

In the Pan Am days, upgrades on all airlines were easier to come by.

Many travellers would employ clever tricks in order to have their economy class seat swapped for one at the front. Charm and even flirting has led to many men – and women – quaffing free champagne and caviar, while looking over their shoulder at those cramped at the back.

People have been known to pretend they are important. To my eternal shame, I have mentioned at check-in that I’m a travel journalist, although in my defence it was always a polite enquiry about the possibility of an upgrade rather than a ‘do-you-know-who-I-am?’ demand that invariably makes the customer look a fool when the response is ‘no’. In the Pan Am era, my success rate was pretty good.

Of course, it used to help if you looked the part. You could always tell the people who had paid for a business or first class seat because they looked as though they’d just got up, while blaggers were dressed to the nines in a suit and tie. After all, who would choose to wear all that clobber on a long flight?

These days, though, it is much harder to travel like the rich and famous if you don’t have the bank balance to match.

According to a recent poll, one in six couples pretend they have just got married in order to try to secure a posh seat. But they are rarely successful. After all, how often do you think a check-in clerk has heard that one?

The truth is that the decision on who will receive upgrades has usually been decided before a person arrives at an airport.

I’ve spoken to many airlines about this and they claim to have hard and fast rules, with little room for interpretation by check-in staff. You’re either in the system for an upgrade, or you’re not.

The airline may want to reward a frequent flyer or an influential executive, but increasingly these decisions are only made by front line staff when economy is overbooked and they have to upgrade somebody.

I still sometimes get an upgrade, but usually courtesy of a contact who has made the request in the system before the day of travel. And, quite rightly, it will only happen at the last minute if the airline has not been able to sell the seat.

Have you got any upgrade stories? Perhaps you can talk your way into any business class seat?

Guest Article by Jeremy Skidmore

Sunday, September 30th, 2007