Screw points hacking; travellers are flying business class on airlines like Emirates and Singapore Airlines by simply wandering on in. Of course: you might get caught and sent back to where you came from. But hey: nothing ventured, nothing gained.
That appears to be the attitude of some brazen economy passengers, anyway, who have tried – with varying levels of success – to sneak into the pointy end of the plane. From Live & Let’s Fly recently reporting on a woman getting busted sneaking into business class on a Singapore Airlines flight to this aggrieved passenger taking to Flyertalk in October 2020 to explain how police removed two women from an American Airlines flight after one of them tried to hide in the footwell of her friend’s business class seat, the stories just keep rolling in.
Most of the stories have a common theme: the passenger getting caught, and being sent back to economy with their tail between their legs (or worse). The reason for this is that airlines – particularly big, international, premium ones, like Singapore Airlines, are pretty switched onto this. Even if there are spare seats in business class, staff are pretty well aware of how many spare spaces are (and should be) available, and payed enough to care if passengers break protocol.
It’s also unlikely these days that there would be spare seats in the first place, with the huge industry there now is around upgrades.
In any case: if you ever spy a free business class seat, and think, “why not?” allow the following video to serve as potential inspiration. The video, currently kicking around on TikTok, appears to show you how to sneak into business class undetected.
The video looks to show you a man’s journey of successfully sneaking into business class from economy, having flight attendants walk past him, and getting away with an ill-gotten snooze in a lie-flat seat, before successfully exiting the flight undetected (or at least unbothered).
Watch how he does it in @imemezy’s video below.
In the video (which originally comes from a 2018 Youtube video by Simon Wilson), Simon says: “I’m going to go sneak into business class. Wish me luck.”
“So we’re mid flight and I’m just going to try and sneak into business class.”
Simon then appears to sneak in, and says to the camera: “Guess who has made it into business class.”
“It’s really dark in here,” he adds, perhaps alluding to the key moment where you might (emphasis on might) be able to sneak into business class undetected.
He then gets lucky on the next element of sneaking into business class that needs to go your way for you to pull it off – not being rumbled by staff: “The guy just walked past. So far so good.”
“God this feels so good. I need to travel like this all the time.”
The video ends with Simon appearing to wake up and walk off the plane in disbelief: “Oh, I’ve actually done it. Cheers, thank you very much. Bye.”
“We did it.”
The video highlights a few things you need to know about when sneaking into the pointy end of a plane. First of all: luck. This is probably the key factor. Second of all: timing. Go when it’s dark (and after dinner has already been served, during a time of flight crew is less inclined to disturb passengers who may be sleeping). Third of all: planning. Scout an empty seat in advance so you can walk with confidence.
Finally: in most business classes that are actually worth sneaking into, don’t expect it to work most of the time, because cabin staff will almost always eventually realise, and kick you out. So perhaps you’d be better off sticking to the more relaxed, tried and tested travel hacks many economy passengers consistently use with success, like using the business class bathroom…