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Years of business travel have spoilt me for long-haul trips: ten hours of attentive service, rom-coms and endless Perrier Jouët affirms the adage that it is sometimes better to travel than to arrive. And it is certainly better if you haven’t personally paid £6,000 for the pleasure. |
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Let’s hear it for the free upgrade! It’s happened to me twice but I couldn’t tell you why those times were successful when others haven’t been. The common factors were that I was looking vaguely presentable, the flights were full and I was travelling alone. I also hear that the following tactics enjoy varying degrees of success: |
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Frequent flyer card. The higher the level, the better – gold members will always be prioritised. |
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A non-national airline. If you fly London to LA on Air New Zealand, the airline might try to secure your loyalty with an upgrade. National airlines have less incentive as they are your default options. |
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Checking-in early. Arrive to the desk early, ask if the flight is busy and politely enquire if they are moving anyone up. |
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Checking-in later. If a flight is full and you are at the back of the queue, you may get bumped off and promised a better seat on the next plane. Of course, this applies to ‘later’ rather than ‘late’- if the gate is closed you may have to fork out for a new ticket. |
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Date a pilot. They should have a specific dating agency – the heady combination of Top Gun heroism and free first class tickets would swing many a heart. There are perks for all airline employees but pilots win on glamour. |
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Special occasion. Yes, the honeymoon does sometimes work but take proof as I’m sure that check-in staff are asked all the time! |
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Full-priced fares. You’re much less likely to be upgraded on a bucket-shop ticket. |
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Travel agents. We’ve become so accustomed to buying our tickets online that we forget about these wily industry-insiders. Their upgrade success rate is statistically significant. So if you book through an agent, do ask if you can be marked as ‘suitable for upgrade’. |
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Sadly, there is no guarantee of riding at the front unless you have that golden ticket firmly in your paw. Thank goodness for airmiles. In the UK, Virgin and BA points may be enhanced with specific Amex cards. The Virgin deal is more generous, although the APR on both schemes is eye-watering – be disciplined and pay your bill off every month. In regards to spending your airmiles, either book well in advance or at the last minute. For obvious reasons, carriers release a limited number of ‘free’ seats but as the departure date looms and the cabin still isn’t full of paying customers, more seats will be allocated. This typically happens one month before departure, two weeks and one week. |
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And when you do finally arrive, sweet talk receptionists for better rooms (if you haven’t already done so at the time of booking), ask concierges for the best deals and look on local websites for any current sales. It’s like negotiating: smile, develop a rapport and be someone that other people want to open doors for. |
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