X Factor contestants pushed back from Business to Economy

X Factor UK has been caught stretching the truth in providing the high life to their contestants.

With the first live show of the series is set to screen on Saturday (October 20), a dozen excited contestants met up at London’s Heathrow airport to catch a flight on the show’s airline partner, Aer Lingus.

There was the inevitable hysterical response when airline crew told them their destination was Los Angeles, where they would perform at the judges' houses.

This year’s judges are Simon Cowell, Robbie Williams, Louis Tomlinson and Ayda Field.

The show’s cameras rolled as they were herded into Business Class for the flight.

It was a LOT of fun flying contestants from The #XFactor to Judges Houses ? pic.twitter.com/fiBaWchiCr

— Aer Lingus (@AerLingus) October 13, 2018

The champagne was flowing, the hopefuls toasted each other, loudly praised Aer Lingus and took selfies of them tasting the high life.

“First class!” one squealed to the cameras.

"I could get used to this,” said another.

The airline posted footage on social media, where it received 1 million views.

However a fellow passenger, photographer Paddy McGrath took to Twitter to reveal that once the cameras stopped rolling, the contestants were pushed back to Economy for the flight.

So, I just happened to be on this flight...

When the cameras were switched off, the contestants were all sent back to economy with the rest of us. So much for that Aer Lingus hospitality ? https://t.co/IgfXn1IJSQ

— Paddy McGrath (@pmcgphotos) October 13, 2018

Aer Lingus released a statement: "As part of Aer Lingus' partnership with X Factor, we flew contestants to perform at the judges' houses.

"The contestants were shown sampling the business class cabins.

“All footage was filmed by the X Factor production team and provided to Aer Lingus."