>>2877222
>sneak up
As a status holder in two OneWorld airlines, there is no such thing and pretending it exist will get you laughed at by gate agents, ticket agents, and FAs. If you actually attempt it, it will get you arrested for not following crew instructions (rightfully so) and face lifetime bans from airlines.

The closest analog is FA denying status holder upgrade (either complementary or certificate-based) from lower class of service into premium cabin because a non-revenue passenger (read: employee or family) is inappropriately prioritized.

Fundamentally, cash is king and money talks for everything in finalizing who is upgraded if any. When premium cabin is not booked and sits empty, all airlines go through a strict hierarchy of paid upgrades > instrument-based upgrades > miles upgrades > status holder complementary upgrades (start with invite-only status, go level by level down to lowest). If you're not paying one way or another, you don't have a chance in hell.

>>2877222
>managed to sneak up
that's not a thing

in the good old days(TM) you could asked nicely
but that stopped working >10y ago

or if some staff had pity
I flew a lot as kid / teen (parents moved for work, I stayed for school) and got upgraded pretty regularly to business / first class
although sometimes my parents booked business class directly

>without paying more than double to price of a plain ol' economy trip?
status
had the Lufthansa Senator status basically my whole (adult) life (well it's actually for lifetime now)
and you sometimes get upgraded
but that only happens on tourist heavy routes during vacations, when economy is overbooked
so don't expect it

Check to see if you can upgrade your seat about a week before check in, it only really works with low demand flight routes though. Ive gotten 3 hour first class flights on Delta for $40 before.

>>2877222
I saw a gypsy try this on a train in Romanian and they immediately booted him out

>>2877222
>sneak up from an economy flight to a premium/business
I have seen it done, just pretend like you belong there. Maybe wear a suit. It's not like they have a passenger list and call you by name, or confirm your meal choice, or know exactly how you paid for your seat.

Fake it until you make it. Pretend like you didn't know if you get caught. No harm done.

>>2879241
Nice LARP, they absolutely do for first class with every airline I've flown.

>Tricks to Upgrading Class?
don't be poor

>>2877222
>sneak up from an economy flight to a premium/business tier
i have seen a few people try this while i have been travelling in business class myself but i don't think i have ever seen anyone succeed
once i saw two kids try it, just teenagers who wanted to see if they could get away with it, they were sort of egging each other on to do it. i kind of wanted them to get away with it but they were too obvious and got caught out when one of the crew walked past
another time i saw some awful muslim woman with her brood of screeching kids and carrying about a hundred bags just try to take over a whole area of the business class section. it was pretty empty and there were only a couple of other people in the section as well as me. obviously the crew stopped her and she tried to claim those were actually their seats but they kicked her and her feral nightmare children back to economy

>>2879241
I just flew a long haul in first class and nobody there wore a suit.

>>2879241
>Maybe wear a suit.
Actual wealthy people do not dress up because they've already made it and do not give a single fuck what anything else thinks. Upwardly-aspiring do, but not for leisure. No wage suck dresses up for flying either, and in all likelihood all-economy policies have decimated work travel in business class.

>It's not like they have a passenger list and call you by name
On literally every flight there's been a list of who is in premium cabin, you're greeted accordingly and for those with invite-only status the captain actually comes out and says hello

>or confirm your meal choice, or know exactly how you paid for your seat.
They literally come out and ask beforehand what you'll like, and upgrade/downgrade priority is explicitly tied to how you've paid according to the hierarchy posted by >>2877224

>Pretend like you didn't know if you get caught. No harm done
Disobeying crew instructions is grounds for arrest, best case scenario you're arrested on arrival, worst case they divert the plane and take you to jail pending charges plus lifetime ban

>>2879272
All islamists must hang

>>2879374
anon i think the battery in your sarcasm detector needs changing

You’re not sneaking in. If you want to fly business and cannot afford it, learn to fly on points. It’s how my wife and I have flown business for the last decade.

>>2879393
>>2879374
>>2879346
>>2879258
Kek, did you think I was serious