If you’re living with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity, flying can already feel stressful. Selecting a gluten-free meal is essential to ensuring a comfortable journey—but could this very request hurt your chances of a spontaneous upgrade?
Surprisingly, yes. Airlines often select passengers for complimentary upgrades based on convenience, and passengers with special dietary requirements—like gluten-free meals—are frequently excluded. Why? Upgrades typically happen last minute, sometimes at the boarding gate. By this point, meals have been loaded onto the plane, leaving little flexibility to accommodate special diets in higher cabins.
I discovered this firsthand when I was offered an upgrade to business class—but only if I agreed to drop my gluten-free meal request since it couldn’t be transferred. Recently, I tested this theory further: I traveled twice without selecting a special gluten-free meal in advance. Both times, I received upgrades to business class, confirming that the absence of a special meal request boosted my upgrade chances.
While I don’t recommend skipping meal requests regularly (because, let’s face it, going hungry or risking gluten contamination isn’t worth a gamble), it’s useful to know how airlines handle upgrades. If an upgrade is a priority, consider bringing your own snacks to remain flexible, or simply embrace the comfort of a guaranteed gluten-free meal in economy.
Either way, knowledge is power—especially when traveling gluten-free!
