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It was poor man’s first class.
A UK passenger became the envy of travelers everywhere after revealing an ingenious way to land a whole row on Etihad Airways
“[It’s] basically like business class in economy,” gushed Maddie Borge, 24, in an Instagram video taking off online. “I can lie down and sleep and all that.”
The Brit had been on an overnight flight from her hometown of London, UK to Sydney Australia — a whopping 13-hour trip, per the video.
As she was seated in coach, Borge wanted to ensure she’d be extra comfortable during the jaunt.
So she tested out the “neighbor-free seating,” in which passengers can bid on the seats next to them on the flight, the content creator explained while strolling through the airport.
The way it works is that there is a minimum and a maximum figure per seat — Borge was offered the chance to spend an extra $250 for the whole row (compared to over $1,000 to upgrade to business), the Daily Mail reported — and priority is granted to Etihad frequent flyers.
If the flight isn’t completely full when they board — and they win the bidding war — said traveler gets the whole row to themselves.
This air chair auction lasts until 35 hours prior to departure, and passengers can’t bid on adjacent seats while at the airport or on the plane.
Borge was initially a little nervous as her printed ticket only said 24A, but was relieved after arriving at the gate and discovering that she was the only person in the row, as shown in the clip.
“Low key the coolest part is because I have the whole row I’m going to choose different seats to sit in for the duration,” fawned the Instagrammer after getting settled into her spacious inflight accommodations.
She reportedly started by sitting in the window seat and putting all her stuff underneath the seat in the middle so she could stretch her legs.
Borge, who boasts nearly 350,000 Insta followers, then lay down across all three seats and managed to sleep a solid “8 hours.”
Flyers were envious of Borge with one writing, “Yah- happy for you! What a great travel feature.”
“This happened to me twice without bidding but this seems like such a cool hack!” said another.
A third dubbed the hack “poor man’s first class.”
However, some others were concerned that she would’ve gotten charged the extra money if she didn’t win the bidding war.
Fortunately, Etihad assures flyers that this is not the case.
“If your bid successful you’ll receive an email confirmation,” they write on their site. “If it was unsuccessful, there will be no change to your booking.”
