Being upgraded to first class is the holy grail of air travel, but there may be a reason you’re never given one of the elusive golden tickets.
According to a former cabin crew member, people who order a special meal will never be upgraded to first class. So if you want that extra leg room, you might want to forgo vegetarian, kosher or other meal requests.
Speaking to Business Insider UK, former Qantas cabin crew member Nik Loukas, who worked in the industry for 10 years before starting a popular blog about flight food, explained the reasoning behind the alleged rule.
“If there’s a special meal request in your booking, the airline won’t even look at you (for an upgrade),” he claimed.
“Because you’ve got a dietary requirement, they might not be able to cater for you if they upgrade you.”
However, in a statement given to The Telegraph, a spokesperson for Qantas said this is not the case.
“This is untrue and the type of meal our customers order has no bearing on their ability to be upgraded,” they said.
“If the upgrade is awarded, the special meal request will be provided in their new cabin.”
To give yourself the best chance of a free upgrade, we’d recommend booking through Monarch, which earlier this week announced it would be giving free upgrades to “nice” customers from now on.
The airline made the announcement in order to promote “traditional values of chivalry, courtesy and respect”.
Sounds good to us.