A Chennai man has shared how a simple approach helped him get two seat upgrades on his Air India Express flight without paying extra. His experience has prompted others to discuss whether being polite to airline staff can help travellers get better seats.
He started with a regular seat but ended up moving to a better one during his journey. Later, he tried the same approach again at the airport, with an unexpected result. “Smiled, used her name, enquired about her day, and politely requested at the check-in counter. Moved to emergency row (14F),” he wrote. But he did not stop there. Explaining why he believed the approach worked, he wrote, “The staff deal with tired, grumpy passengers all day. One person being nice is easy to say yes to. His post led to several people sharing similar experiences, while others pointed out that such upgrades may also depend on whether seats are available. “It also brightens up their day. “Almost all check-in crew are happy to give a free upgrade if asked nicely and if the seats are available. “So, so true! I do this with IndiGo all the time and always get my way. Being civil gets more done than being belligerent ever does,” one comment read. “Can you give a hack for IndiGo as well? This doesn’t work there,” the user asked. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.)
I got it once with at least 15 people behind me in line,” the user wrote.
X user Narayanan Hariharan described his experience in a post, calling it a “free travel hack”. He said he had initially been assigned seat 27B on his flight. Hariharan said he tried the same approach again at the boarding gate and was moved to seat 1F. Take a look: One user said being friendly with airline or security staff can make their day too. Others said they had followed a similar approach while travelling with different airlines . Another user said being polite was simply a habit for them, while someone else asked whether the same approach worked with IndiGo. One commenter summed up the experience with a caveat: “Works most of the time if the flight is not full.” (Disclaimer: This report is based on user-generated content from social media.
I just had a small chat with a CISF personnel at the security check today and he seemed so happy that someone finally spoke to him about something other than, ‘Yeh bhi nikalna hai?’” Another claimed that check-in staff are often willing to offer an upgrade when seats are available.
