how do you get free upgrades for things this is some general advice that can
apply to a lot of different situations and they're not guaranteed to work but
you definitely should do at least this if you want the chance of getting an
offer of an upgrade one of the first things you can do to try and get a free
upgrade is join the loyalty program of whatever it is that you're doing whether
you're flying with WestJet or taking an Amtrak train or on a Carnival cruise
ship or whatever it is join whatever loyalty program is available that
doesn't cost you anything and you know enter that loyalty number
when you make bookings in the future that is one of the ways that they kind
of get to know you and then they get a sense that you're the kind of person
they might want to really make happy and invest you could be kind of an
unofficial brand ambassador if you really like it I've convinced more than
ten people to go on cruises that wouldn't have otherwise because they
made a great impression on me they also track your repeat business that is a
good thing that that helps and increases the likelihood that you might get
something offered another thing that you can do is whenever possible
as long as it is the same or better cost book directly with the company that
you're dealing business with I go on Expedia and I kind of showroom which is
kind of ironic because you know they say that in the retail space retail is
getting pummeled by online because though someone will go to a Best Buy and
look at the TV and then they'll go buy the TV on Amazon or something and that's
called showrooming that's when you use the store as a showroom to view the
product that you're just gonna buy online and that's a whole different
conversation about the economics of that ironically I use the Expedia website or
maybe the flight Center website to do showrooming for flights and not every
airline is on those services for example Southwest is not on Expedia so it
won't necessarily give you the full picture but it gives me a great place to
start and I can kind of see what some of the prices are and see if they're
competitive so I'll look at a bunch of different airlines then I'll check one
or two extras that I know aren't there then I'm only checking very few sites
but when it comes time to book if I can get the same price or a better price
booking it like WestJet.ca or Delta.com or whatever instead of Expedia book
direct every time if you want a free upgrade now Expedia has recently started
their own kind of membership loyalty thing I think it's like a year and a
half it's been around you can level up and you get
like a little tiny little bit of cash back but that's super minor I'm not
convinced it's worth it whereas if you book directly with an
airline they're more likely to upgrade your seats for example I was flying with
I think it was Delta and I had a flight ticket that was the cheapest cheapest of
the economy fares and it was a kind where you don't get to pick your seat in
advance and so even when I checked in at the airport I still didn't have my seat
assignment it's assigned at the gate and that made me a little bit nervous but I
was saving some money so I was willing to do it and I can make anything work
really on a plane I don't like the middle seat but hey whatever we'll see
what I get and I ended up getting a free upgrade to their their their sky premium
I forget what it was called I did a video about that it was partly because I
booked directly with them they didn't offer it to the people who booked through
Expedia and one of the reasons that both hotels resorts Cruise Lines
Airlines they're gonna favor you if you booked directly because Expedia takes
some of that that money when you make the booking through them and so that's
less money that goes directly to the end company whether it's Hilton Carnival
Delta whoever and so their profit margin is improved you're paying the same price
either way but because they want to get listed on the aggregate you know Hotwire
hotels.com Expedia flight center or whatever those
places often take a little bit of a cut and that cuts into their profit margin so
they're gonna like you a little less I've actually been in situations where
I've been talking to someone at the gate for a flight or at the front desk of a
hotel and they've said something like because you booked with Expedia
I can't do X whatever X was there are often more limitations when you book
through the aggregator so that is something to keep in mind book direct
you're more likely to get that kind of an upgrade offer at a hotel
flight whatever another thing I think that helps and I'm not sure necessarily
if it helps with upgrades necessarily but it's just a good idea is having a
trusted traveler program like Nexus if you're Canadian or American you're
traveling to the other country frequently the Nexus program is
fantastic it's $50 lasts five years you get a card that basically stands in as
your passport and it's a much faster process when you're passing
through customs if you're going through a land crossing there the nexus lane is
almost always faster at airports it's almost always faster Nexus includes TSA
PreCheck and so my theory about this is because you're the trusted traveler and
they basically have this extra security level around you they know you better
they might be more likely to offer you things for one thing you get checked in
faster you get to the gate faster if they if they make some sort of an offer you're
there sooner to take advantage of it then the guy who's still going through
the regular security lineup because he doesn't have TSA PreCheck but also you
know if they want to put somebody on an exit row and maybe they're figuring it
out in advance before boarding the plane maybe the guy they know something more
about and they have more faith in and Trust in as a trusted traveler might be
more likely to get that upgrade to the position that includes some
responsibility for example so I recommend that I also recommend checking
in early for whatever it is whether it's a cruise or your train ride or your
plane ride whatever it is checking in early is great for a couple of reasons
with your cruise you know paying it off early checking in early you might be
more likely to get an upgrade offer because you're not still owing the money
and again they know more about you and they're connected to you you know they
got your email and your phone number and they can reach out to you in different
ways to offer that upgrade it might be linked to your loyalty account which
often drives upgrades as well as I already talked about so checking in
early gives them that opportunity if you're an agent at a gate working for an
airline and maybe you have an extra spot in first-class and there are standby people
maybe you're gonna want to take somebody from economy and bump them up to first
class and then give the standby person the economy seat well as soon as you
might know that they're you know you're gonna want to look at who's there and
you're gonna want to get on the little loudspeaker and say you know mr. so and
so mr. Jones please come up to the gate and that's how you come up and that's
when they'll often say hey would you be interested in an exit row would you be
interested in a free upgrade to first-class whatever it is so checking
in early and being there early allows you to be there for those opportunities
as well if you check in to your flight exactly 24 hours before the flight which
is normally when you can check in online sometimes an upgrade offer will pop up
when I've been flying with WestJet or Alaska or American I believe I've had
different opportunities pop up first class for $35 $50 75 $99 whatever the price range
for you is that makes sense generally that's like when that offer
that comes with a nominal fee will come up and sometimes I've got an amazing
opportunities to upgrade to first class for like $25 and that was absolutely
worth it in my experience so checking in early absolutely helps and like I said
be there early because that could be when the opportunity first comes up
they're not gonna wait for the guy that shows up at the last minute and upgrade
that person to first class they're gonna hold the the you know the economy seat
for the person that might be a no-show just be nice just be polite you know say
thank you say hello have a smile on your face think positive thoughts the power
of positive thinking will help you but also the fact that your demeanor is
friendlier I mean if you were gonna go up to someone and offer them something
would you want to approach someone scowling or someone smiling who are you
gonna want to talk to probably the smiling person as long as they don't
look crazy I was a cashier at a grocery store for a few years putting myself
through college and sometimes they would give us free things to give away to
people balloons for kids or whatever a beach ball something like that and I
really enjoyed it when that opportunity came up I had a lot of fun doing it but
the number of people who said no to stuff was actually quite surprising even
when it was completely free hey would you like a free free beach volleyball
oh no no why would I want that or they wouldn't believe me that it's free well
how much does that cost and like it's free I said it was free and so all of a
sudden I find myself doing this sales pitch to somebody to give them something
that is absolutely free and in my opinion is a nice thing to have and like
what why is this becoming more like work this should be the funnest part of my
day and so just imagine that if you're a flight attendant and you have the
opportunity to upgrade someone you don't want to go to someone that you think is
gonna be a harder more difficult conversation and people generally don't
want to reward bad behavior you know someone says hey welcome aboard you're
like whatever do you really think they're gonna upgrade you or someone whp says
welcome aboard and you say thank you that's good I've
read many different articles and and different things I've even spoken to
some people who were flight attendants and they talk about their pet peeves
and one of the big pet peeves is people who ask inane questions or just
constantly bombard them with questions you know it's fine to be curious hey are
we flying over Sioux Falls right now I don't know what city is that in the
distance I don't know you know maybe if you got a screen in the seat in front of
you you can look it up on their map or whatever but don't don't monopolize the
flight attendants time with that sort of stuff and just try to be helpful and
accommodating you see a little old lady struggling to get her her luggage in the
overhead compartment help them out whether you believe in
karma or not there's the possibility that a flight attendants gonna see you
do that and be like well that's a nice person and they want to reward that
kind of stuff because you just make their job easier people are gonna want
to give free things to people to make their jobs easier not harder so whenever
possible if you can find an unobtrusive way to be easy then that's more likely
to get rewarded for a variety of reasons so just be nice and polite and don't
waste their time and of course a great way to get free upgrades is to travel a
lot the more you travel the more lottery tickets you're buying basically in the
in the upgrade lottery but also you know you level up in the loyalty programs you
get experience and so you're you come off as a bit more professional and you
know what to do you're not all confused and wasting their time you know you get
straight to your seat you know where your seat is you don't have to ask them
where's my seat you know experience breeds competence and competence breeds
I think respect so that helps but also you know levelling up so people often
ask us why do we always cruise with Carnival well for one thing they're
fantastic and lovely and they also have the largest fleet so the most sailings
and some of the best prices but another reason is we level up in their
loyalty program and so now that I'm platinum I get on the ship sooner I get
my cabin ready sooner I get gifts every time I sail I get you know I get a pin
with the ship name and the year on it on this sailing I got a nice backpack you
know on longer sailings you get the member parties and other different perks
so traveling more helps in a variety of ways leveling up and having more
experience about it so I mean if you have the means to travel more of course
that that's one of the ways and so that's interesting and
worth thinking about because if I'm going to pay for a first class or
business ticket and that's going to cost me as much as a whole other trip maybe
flying economy and going more often is actually kind of a smarter thing because
then I might I might get an upgrade as well I get to travel more that way so I
mean that's full of win so those are just some basic tips kind of across the
board about how to potentially get free upgrades in a variety of different
programs no guarantees your mileage will vary but they're good things to try and
honestly I think you're just gonna have a better time if you approach it that
way