A popular Instagram user has shared a video of him allegedly scamming his way into a business class seat. As he describes it, this would be “how to fly business class for free.”
The premise is that the guy was flying Cathay Pacific business class from Sydney to Hong Kong. He faked that he broke his ankle, so he bought an orthopedic boot at an airport shop (I’m surprised they sell those).
Then he boarded the flight with it, and when he got to his economy seat, he faked that he couldn’t fit in the seat. Then the crew moved him up to business class… at least that’s the story.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7ViOhFHzAX/
Now, throughout this whole process he’s not exactly acting low key:
- When he makes this request of the flight attendant and inflight service manager, his friend is filming him
- He’s constantly filming himself in his business class seat, and is even taking pictures with the crew
- As he deplanes a Cathay Pacific employee wishes him a speedy recovery, and he says “oh yeah I forgot about that”
If this story is true, the guy is a real piece of work for faking this… that’s not cool. And if the story isn’t true, he’s still a real piece of work for faking this. 😉
Like so many situations nowadays of people trying to gain publicity, there are questions about whether this “prank” was even real, or whether he was just booked in business class and faked the upgrade.
On the one hand, I’d be very surprised if the crew knowingly played along with his prank (given Cathay Pacific’s strict standards), though there are still some things one has to wonder:
- It’s interesting that they moved him up to business class, rather than to a bulkhead seat in economy, or a premium economy seat (it’s of course possible they were all full, but if they were going to do this you’d think they would move an elite member up, and then move him to one of those seats)
- It’s interesting that he doesn’t seem to be sitting next to the cameraman/friend he is traveling with (it could be that they couldn’t get seats together)
- Some suggest that the guy he’s sitting next to in business class (who has an eyemask on in every “scene”) is in fact his dad, who is featured in other videos; based on what we can see of his face I’m inclined to believe that, especially with how careful they are not to show his face at the end of the video, while they have no issues violating everyone else’s privacy
Anyway, Cathay Pacific has been known to blacklist people who play pranks like this, so it will be interesting to see if the airline says anything.
If he did in fact fake his way into business class then I think the airline will take action, while if he didn’t, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a spokesperson at least confirm that he had purchased that seat, to prevent other people from getting any ideas.
What do you guys think — did he fake the injury, or did he also fake the prank?
(Tip of the hat to View from the Wing)
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