Flight attendant explains why you should always arrive late to the airport
Topics: Travel
Jess Hardiman
Featured Image Credit: Pexels/David Vincent Villavicencio/Jason Toevs
Topics: Travel
A flight attendant has explained why you should always arrive late to the airport, having shared her insider secrets in a recent interview.
Knowing when to get to the airport often feels like an impossibly fine art: if you leave too early you run the risk of sitting around waiting for hours, while if you’re having a mad dash to get there you might not even make your flight.
But while we’d assume flight crew would only ever advise leaving plenty of time to get there, one flight attendant actually suggests the opposite – though for a very specific reason.
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Kamila Jakubjakova, who used to work as a cabin crew member for Emirates, shared some of her tips of the trade in an interview with The Sun.
She made one point about the importance of both passengers and cabin crew taking steps to ensure everyone has a pleasant flight.
"It always pays being nice to flight attendants,” Jakubjakova said.
“If you bring some treats with you to the flight, for example, some candies or some chocolate, and offer them to us, then we will probably try to make your flight a little better or pay you back in some way," she explained.
"We are nice to everybody, but, of course, if you go the extra mile, we'll probably also go the extra mile in return."
She also said there’s a nifty way that you might potentially be offered an upgrade – if you’re willing to leave checking in a little later than you might like.
Of course, that’s a bit of a gamble, but if done right it could land you a seat in business class.
Jakubjakova explained: "Sometimes, airlines oversell tickets and don’t expect everybody to show up.
"So if the flight is overbooked, and everyone shows up, they’ll have to move economy passengers into business class, and maybe the last passengers who come to check in for the flight will be chosen, as they’re the extra ones."
That said, if you’re someone who stresses out at the idea of leaving it too late, you might be best off sucking it up in economy.
After all, you won’t even be able to enjoy your fancy seat if you’ve panicked the whole way – or if you’ve not even made it in time to check in for the flight...
If you don't mind the thrill of a gamble, however, then go wild!