Experts reveal how to increase your chances of being upgraded on a flight

1 Aim for popular flights

If you’re hoping to secure an upgrade, then it’s important to remember you’re more likely to achieve this when seats are overbooked and an airline needs to make an exception and offer you a free upgrade in order to avoid disgruntled customers.

Therefore, try to be savvy when it comes to looking at when to book. Peak times that can result in overbooked cabins include during school holidays in the summer and during national holidays such as Easter. During these times it’s likely that flights will be full of families, who are less likely to book up first class seats. Alongside this, popular routes will be busy as people jet off to make the most of their time off.

Another benefit to traveling during times popular with families is that you may be asked to move seats to accommodate a family with young children to sit together.

2. It pays to be punctual

No one wants to hang around at the airport longer than needed, however, if you decide to arrive with plenty of time to spare, this could actually play to your advantage.

It’s not well known, but the time of your arrival at check-in can have a big impact on your chances of an upgrade. If you avoid the peak times and arrive very early, you’ll beat off most of the competition for upgrades. If an airline realises they have overbooked the economy cabin, they’ll want to rectify the error sooner rather than later to avoid delays.

Alternatively, some believe that a last minute arrival can lead to a higher chance for an upgrade, if those who arrived earlier didn’t decide to upgrade to first class and the airlines have premium seats left to fill – but this is a much riskier strategy.

3. Fly solo

First class seats often come with a hefty price tag, and can be extremely profitable for airlines. Therefore airlines don’t want to hand these out for free unless they really need to.

With the potential for losses on the seat, airlines are even less keen to upgrade a group – and so your chances are much higher if flying alone.

Alongside this, seating in first class is often limited, meaning there is less chance of a group of seats becoming available.

4. Show you’re flexible

Politeness will always get you far in life, and this is no exception when it comes to securing an upgrade at the airport.

Airline staff will value customers that are helpful and flexible and be more likely to reward them in exchange. As mentioned previously, overbooking can be a common issue in the aviation industry – and a common solution can be to ‘bump’ passengers to another flight.

While an unexpected change to your plans is never ideal, it can pay to volunteer to be moved to the next flight as airlines will often reward you with an upgrade due to the inconvenience caused.

If you’ve not had any joy prior to boarding, you can always be rewarded once in the cabin. Often cabin crew may need to move passengers, if this is the case, ensure to show your eagerness as you could land a first class seat for your troubles. If this isn’t offered up front – there is no harm in asking politely for a bump in return for the inconvenience.

5. Dress sharp

Traveling in a suit or smart workwear isn’t always the most comfortable option, we’d all prefer to be in loungewear for a long journey.

However, a smart outfit could be the difference between being chosen for an upgrade or not! While dressing in your finest clothes is no guarantee for an upgrade, top paying customers will often be dressed sharper, and airlines will want to ensure anyone they bump to first class looks the part.

Don’t feel the need to dress in anything extravagant. However, just make sure you avoid items that are too casual like flip flops and cargo shorts.

6. Ask politely

Last but not least, one of the best tactics is simply to ask airlines if there is a chance for an upgrade. If you don’t ask, you don’t get – so why not try your luck?

The most important aspect when it comes to requesting an upgrade? Be polite! Make sure you don’t come across as presumptuous or demanding and you could land a first class seat.

Inconveniences such as missed connections, lost baggage or delays are all great reasons to try to convince staff to bump you too, so make sure to use any of these to your advantage.

Alongside this, being keen to point out your loyalty to that airline, or sharing that you are traveling for a special occasion such as a honeymoon or birthday can go a long way!