The top 5 myths about getting upgraded

by Grant Martin on

Business class. The promised land in the front of the aircraft with wider seats, free drinks, meals and checked bags. Who wouldn’t want to take the opportunity for a free upgrade once in a while?

Yes, it is possible to purchase a coach ticket, work the system and get upgraded to the front of the airplane. Is it easy? No. Is there an inexpensive shortcut? Not really. Contrary to many empowering articles out there, upgrades are a tightly controlled, regimented benefit that are doled out to only a few deserving passengers.

Many of the oft repeated tricks to sneaking up front have expired with new technology, prolific resources on the web and plain old common sense. So we’ve compiled the top five myths about getting upgraded to save you time and embarrassment at the airport. Read on for the details.1. Dress to impress: We’re well past the days when passengers dressed up for the pleasure of flying on an airplane. Any ticket agent, gate agent or flight attendant knows that people from all walks of life fly in business class. There are days when the Fortune 500 CEO wears a hooded sweatshirt and buys a first class ticket and days when the neighborhood plumber has enough miles to upgrade. Either way, if you dress nice thinking that you’ll be selected for an upgrade, you’re probably just going to be uncomfortable in coach.

2. See an empty seat? Grab it. Flight attendants have manifests that show which passenger is sitting in which seat and whether or not they got upgraded (haven’t you ever seen Executive Decision?). So if you happen to find a seat up front that hasn’t been taken and are able to slip in, they’re going to notice during the preflight checks and you’re going to get the boot.

3. Ask the flight attendant for an upgrade. Flight attendants have no control over who gets upgraded when – there always might be one last business class passenger coming down the jet bridge right before departure, so they can’t give away a seat. After the boarding door is closed? Maybe if you’re discreet, but with everyone watching, the flight attendant will most definitely say no.

4. Ask the ticket agent to put a special code on your e-ticket. This just doesn’t happen. Any request for upgrades are managed by a different system that’s independent of your reservation. If they add anything to your ticket or boarding pass it’s going to be SSSS.

5. Be charming and polite. While airline employees will surely appreciate your kind behavior, any deviation from the set upgrade process shows favoritism and is something that the agent could get nailed for. Shouldn’t you always be charming and polite anyway?

It’s important to remember that behind paid upgrades, the entire engine behind getting moved up front is fueled by elite status, the preferential treatment that one earns after flying a certain high volume of miles — usually over 25k. If you’re close or you think that you’ll get close to that limit this year, you should check out Gadling’s Guide to Mileage Running.

So the fact of the matter is, 90% of upgrades are managed by a computer system that automatically upgrades those who pay for an upgrade and elite passengers that worked hard to earn them. The other 9.5% of upgrades are handled by gate agents at the airport who sweep up any elites or paid upgrades that fell through the cracks. That remaining 0.5%? That’s your window of opportunity. Better think of a creative approach.

As we stop flying, the boneyard becomes more crowded

by Scott Carmichael on

It is no secret that air travel is in a downwards spiral. The industry always manages to find excuses, it could be the crappy economy, high fuel prices, or a general sense of panic that is keeping people from flying.

And when air traffic drops, so does the demand for many of the planes operated by the airlines. When a route could once be served by a 747, low traffic may now demand a smaller plane, and when a 747 is idle, you can’t just pull into a parking spot at the local airport and throw some quarters in the meter.

There are several types of aircraft boneyards in the world – some specialize in ripping all the valuable parts out of the carcass, others devote their knowledge to preparing the plane for a long break, awaiting the return of paying passengers.

A plane that is destined for a long break will have all its fluids removed, as well as some instruments that don’t do too well when they sit still. The engines and other openings are then blocked, and the airline simply pays for the spot. Some airlines even pay to have the plane moved around a little, to keep the tires in good shape.

In total, 1200 planes were grounded and moved to the boneyard last year, with an additional 675 heading to a parking spot this year, making it one of the worst on record.

So long, Northwest 747’s

by Grant Martin on


The end of an airline is upon us. While there are still a few wrinkles in th merger between Delta and Northwest Airlines to iron out, things are pretty much set in stone when they start repainting aircraft. To start, Delta, a carrier that has never had the 747 jumbo jet in its livery, will be usurping Northwest’s aircraft and putting them on long haul routes.

You can see the whole process of repainting in the above video.

To many, this is a sad passage of redtail aircraft from the once proud Northwest Airlines into the sad mass of Delta airlines. It’s nostalgic, I suppose, but I’m going miss the NW frequent flyer program more than it’s 747s.

Wheelchair on plane explodes on landing

by Abha Malpani on

Having the battery of an electronic item you take on board a flight, short-circuit and then burst into flames, doesn’t even come to your mind when you think about plane accidents.

Earlier this month, a wheelchair stored in the hold of a Boeing 727-200 First Choice flight carrying 229 passengers, let out blue sparks while being offloaded from the plane. The minute it was placed on a vehicle to be transported at Manchester Airport, it caught fire and exploded. Luckily, no one was injured. Thank goodness it didn’t happen on the plane. A similar incident happened in February last year, where a fire started aboard a plane because a camera battery short-circuited while in the overhead compartment.

The articles about this incident talk about passengers needing to be more vigilant when taking items on board. True, but I also think it’s the ground staff’s responsibility to fiercely spread awareness of things like this, and make their check-in and boarding procedures more stringent. Although the exact cause of the accident has not yet been found, assuming it was a short-circuit, it could have been avoided by making sure the battery was fixed properly and that there was no way for it to switch on automatically while in storage.

Talking about seemingly innocuous items causing serious damage on an aircrafts, you can’t help but think of mobile phones. Although told a million times, I still know people who do not switch their phones off on a flight, even if they don’t use them. They forget, or don’t realize the importance of doing so. I haven’t heard of any planes crashing or catching fire due to a mobile phone, but if it can happen with a camera and a wheelchair, I imagine that things can happen with a mobile phone.

How can airlines be stricter? Perhaps when baggage is being screened, they should ask passengers to remove batteries from all electronic devices. But then you can’t be assured that the passenger won’t put the battery right back in. Other than spreading awareness through publicity, what’s the solution? Rely on the passenger’s consciousness?

To save weight, airline removes life vests

by Grant Martin on

In an attempt to cut as much weight as possible from their aircraft, Jazz Airlines, a subsidiary of Air Canada, recently decided to pull all life vests from their aircraft. Now, in the unlikely event of a water landing, passengers will be advised to use their floating seat cushions for buoyancy.

Will this affect the safety of the passengers? Well, purely from the flotation standpoint, life vests have an advantage in that they don’t need to be held onto, which can be tough to do when you’re in ice-cold Canadian water. They also help the passenger’s body face upward, out of the water versus the opposite position that holding a seat cushion would require (an article on TheStar has better diagrams). But government regulators don’t require one or the other.

How much do these life vests weigh? About a half kilogram. For the seventy five people that might be on this Jazz aircraft, that’s a total of thirty-eight kilograms or about eighty three pounds per flight.

It seems to me that there’s enough swing in the passenger and luggage loads such that the weight shouldn’t make much of a difference. Suppose a men’s rugby club books a dozen tickets instead of a middle school girl’s gymnastics team. Each one of those guys could weigh three times as much as the girl. What do you do about that?
Sure, many domestic airlines no longer have life vests, but for the eighty pounds of weight saved, is it really worth the drama and customer disgust?

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