Flying really can be a stressful experience, so we can’t blame passengers for trying to make their flights more comfortable, or even get upgrades when possible.
AeroTime previously wrote about a traveler who shared a hack to get a business class upgrade for minimal cost. As clever as the hack is, it does not guarantee an upgrade.
One passenger on a recent flight devised a ‘hack’ to get the privacy of a business class suite while flying economy.
The passenger used a long cloth that resembled an airline blanket to ‘pitch’ a tent by clipping the end of the cloth to the overhead bin and draping it all the way down to the seat.
This was caught on video by a fellow passenger sitting across the aisle. Giga Vashakidze, with a TikTok username of vashak27, uploaded the video, with the caption ‘When you take social distancing to the next level at 30,000 feet’.
“Caught my neighbor turning economy class into a VIP section. Has anyone else experienced this on their flight?” Vashakidze asks on the video.
Although the airline and flight details have not been not disclosed, it can be seen that the tent-pitching passenger was sitting on the last row of a section in economy class, so their seats are not able to recline. Possibly, in the absence of reclined seats, the passenger opted to have maximum privacy.
The tent actually offered more privacy than most business class suites, where doors and enclosures are just below a standing person’s head level.
The video has garnered mixed reactions. Most respondents are in favor of the tent, calling the passenger a ‘genius’. Some were suspicious, though, questioning what the passenger intended to do in privacy.
This is not the first time that a passenger attempted to create an enclosure or a business class-like experience in economy.
In May 2023, a passenger was caught on video trying to enclose three economy seats using a roll of cling wrap.