Chennai man reveals how he got two free Air India Express seat upgrades

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.Passenger shares how he moved to better seats on his Air India Express flight. (X/@narayananh)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.What did the passenger do?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.“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. Hariharan said he tried the same approach again at the boarding gate and was moved to seat 1F.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.Take a look:Internet shares their own experiencesOne user said being friendly with airline or security staff can make their day too.“It also brightens up their day. 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.“Almost all check-in crew are happy to give a free upgrade if asked nicely and if the seats are available. I got it once with at least 15 people behind me in line,” the user wrote.Others said they had followed a similar approach while travelling with different airlines. “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.Another user said being polite was simply a habit for them, while someone else asked whether the same approach worked with IndiGo.“Can you give a hack for IndiGo as well? This doesn’t work there,” the user asked.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. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.)