Considered the holy grail of travel, scoring a business class upgrade for pretty much any reason will always be a legendary tale. But what if you fake an injury to get one? Does that earn you more kudos? Or less?
Popular Australian YouTubing and Instagram prankster and influencer, Jamie Zhu recently decided he would set himself the challenge to snaffle a personal Business class upgrade by faking a broken ankle, by wearing a moon boot (Cam Walker) he bought at the airport.
With an economy ticket booked on Cathay Pacific, Zhu begins his scam at the airport by saying in the video that he’s got a “very long international flight ahead of him” and that he’s “thought of a way to get a business class upgrade for free.”
Zhu then proceeds to buy a medical moon boot from the Amcal pharmacy at the airport and replaces his sneaker with his new disability footwear.
Cue lots of running around from Zhu before remembering his ankle is supposed to be broken.
After boarding the plane, Zhu attempts to squeeze his oversized foot into his economy window seat, but to no avail. “It’s not fitting because of the boot,” he says.
“Ah, ok,” Says the flight attendant, “I’ll have to get clearance,” before returning with a colleague.
What do you think happens next?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZIZy-_txBw
Remarkably, Zhu next appears sitting in Business Class smirking like the proverbial Cheshire Cat.
“It worked!” he says excitedly.
Zhu then removes his boot and spends the rest of the flight enjoying the business class perks, even snapping a selfie with one of the flight attendants.
As Zhu strolls off the plane, a flight attendant says to him: “Thank you, I hope your ankle gets better,”
To which Zhu replies: “Oh yeah I forgot about that,”
Already the video has had over 50,000 views and numerous comments both applauding and roasting Zhu’s efforts.
One comment says: “The title should be “how to scam people to get more attention on social media”. Loser.” while another says: “Shame on you! My daughter is a flight attendant, and you are taking advantage of their goodwill to try and help those in need.”
‘It’s KIDS like him that’s wrong with our society and social platforms that let these KIDS get attention. He was either paid and is only doing this for attention (don’t most do it nowadays) OR he committed fraud and soon to (hopefully) get sued by the airline for the cost and damages. People should unfollow these idiots,’ a furious viewer posted.
Another comment questions the video’s credibility: “Lol, totally a fake video. My guess is that he and a friend booked an economy and business class. The conversation with the flight attendant was just about switching seats with his friend. This was a pre-planned faked video.”
Sydney based Zhu has 1.1 million Instagram fans and almost 700,000 YouTube subscribers.
A clever setup? You be the judge.
