Traveller reveals trick to getting free row of seats on Qantas flight

A savvy young traveller has shared a clever trick for getting a whole row of seats on a flight for free.

Chelsea Badger revealed her tactic in a video posted to TikTok, which showed viewers how she got three seats for the price of one on a Qantas flight from Auckland to Sydney.

With a little organisation, the 28-year-old Australian, who lived in Aotearoa for the last three years, said she scored a row of free seats without paying any additional cost.

“I can’t believe this works,” Badger said in the TikTok video.

Badger told viewers the trick required her to download the airline app and arrive a little early at the airport gate.

“Once you get to your gate, you want to wait until it’s about 10 minutes before boarding. Then open up your Qantas app and click the seat selector tool,” she explained.

“If there’s a whole row free, or even just a better seat, make a mental note of that seat number.”

Since passengers cannot select new seats through the app that close to boarding time, it will show what seats are really free.

Travellers can, however, turn on the charm with the gate agent and ask to swap seats to the row that is empty.

“This is the easiest upgrade hack ever,” she said before adding a caveat; it only works with flights that are not fully booked and she could only vouch for it working with Qantas.

@chelsbadger

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“I’ve done this successfully a few times while flying with Qantas – not saying it works for every airline. And to state the obvious: this only works with Qantas flights that aren’t fully booked.”

Unsurprisingly, the video has been popular with viewers, racking up more than 361,000 views since it was posted on February 7.

Many commented on how simple but smart the tactic was.

“That’s a great one. I have travelled for eight years and not thought of this,” wrote one social media user.

“Girl, that’s smart AF” another wrote.

Other travellers attested to the sneaky seat hack.

“LEGIT DID THIS” wrote one viewer.

“I’ve made mental notes of empty rows whilst literally boarding the plane and then just sitting in those seats upon boarding, works every time,” another shared. Badger replied, saying she “could never” be so bold and preferred to have a ticket confirming she could change seats.

As far as TikTok travel hacks go, this one seems low-risk. Unlike the viral pillowcase hack that suggested people could sneak additional carry-on baggage onto a flight by stuffing it into a pillow.