Has this truly never been discussed on FT? I tried a search on <steal upgrade> and <theft upgrade> ... nothing matched.

‘Mike Murray’ (is that his real name?) regularly sneaks into First Class and he’s proud of it. He is part of a larger article about cheating in today’s society in the Weekend WSJ..

The article describes Mr Murray's self-upgrading. He's done it four or five times recently. Says: "I felt like I robbed a bank." Goes on to say he's been busted a number of times: "the humiliation of getting sent back to coach is nothing compared to the thrill of a free ride." He has a few other tricks that make him a low life poster boy. Other petty larcenies (by others) described include: stealing gas, ashtrays, golf, wine, movie fares.

I’m sure I saw it once: the ‘gentleman’ across the aisle got up from his seat, went back to econ and plunked his friend into the empty seat next to him. Oh, the fuss he made when his friend was bounced! The ‘gentleman’ started to tap something into his PC and was last seen fuming and retreating to econ, never to be seen again. Presumably he joined his friend in a show of solidarity. He so upset the cabin crew that I wrote a letter for their files in case Mr. sneaky upgrade ever wrote to make wild and crazy accusations.

Ya’ know, on second thought maybe Mike Murray really only told the reporter that he
occasionally gets upgraded for unknown reasons and look how the article turned out!
<very, very tongue in cheek on my part>

Let’s dish some dirt! And those of you outside the USA - stop snickering.

Jim

[This message has been edited by jimquan (edited 08-26-2000).]