Self-Upgraders Got Caught In Turkish Business Class — Flight Attendants Let Them Stay, But Refused To Feed Them

Apparently self-upgrading on Turkish Airlines is allowed – you just don’t get the full business class service.

Travel writer JT Genter was flying Turkish business class and photographed a passenger who apparently was booked on the flight in economy, but sat in business class. They were with a travel companion and both were caught. Staff came on board to eject them from the cabin, they delayed – and a decision was made just to let them fly in the premium seat.

First time I've seen self-upgraders get caught during boarding, refuse to move, and actually get away with it! (The woman in the couple left for the bathroom, seemingly as a delay tactic)

The flight is delayed and short, so it seems the crew figured it wasn't worth delaying more pic.twitter.com/zn7z97jHua

— JT Genter (@JTGenter) January 28, 2026

However, it appears that what continued to differentiate them from actual business class customres is that everyone else in the cabin was offered the proper business class meal service. Crew refused to feed them.

Update: we took off and the crew is serving all other pax drinks and food. The self-upgraders are steaming that they aren't getting served a meal pic.twitter.com/i5yh9RKsSK

— JT Genter (@JTGenter) January 28, 2026

It appears that this was a flight from Skopje International Airport in Macedonia to Istanbul, which is just a 372 mile flight, blocked at about 1 hour 35 minutes from push back to arrival. That’s an impressive meal for such a short flight, though I’ve had equally good or better flying the 200 miles from Doha to Abu Dhabi on Qatar Airways. In the U.S. it’s standard not to offer a meal in first class at all on flights under 900 miles.

I’ve seen people attempt to self-upgrade but it is not allowed and I’ve never seen it actually succeed. In fact, something like this is more likely:

• A passenger on United was dragged off of a Shanghai – Newark flight after trying to upgrade himself to business class several times and stealing champagne.

• An American on a Korean Air flight was dragged out of business class after attempting to self-upgrade. When cabin crew try to get her to move, she chanted “US marshal! US marshal!” as though that’s whom she hoped would respond. Then they tried to move her and she laughed that she’s wearing a seat belt so she couldn’t be moved.

  She was eventually dragged down the aisle and strapped into a chair to remove her from the aircraft. She then yelled something about the airline, confusing North and South Korea, and shouted “nuclear disarmament!”

I’ve never seen a passenger refuse to leave a seat in a cabin they weren’t ticketed in once caught. And I’ve never seen a situation like that not end in being physically removed from the aircraft. I guess the trick is to do it on a short Turkish Airlines flight and be obstinate – but I still don’t recommend it.