diff --git a/arrow-flight/src/client.rs b/arrow-flight/src/client.rs
index 2df55545218f..8793f7834bfb 100644
--- a/arrow-flight/src/client.rs
+++ b/arrow-flight/src/client.rs
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ use std::task::Poll;
 
 use crate::{
     decode::FlightRecordBatchStream, flight_service_client::FlightServiceClient,
-    trailers::extract_trailers, Action, ActionType, Criteria, Empty, FlightData,
+    trailers::extract_lazy_trailers, Action, ActionType, Criteria, Empty, FlightData,
     FlightDescriptor, FlightInfo, HandshakeRequest, PutResult, Ticket,
 };
 use arrow_schema::Schema;
@@ -205,7 +205,7 @@ impl FlightClient {
         let request = self.make_request(ticket);
 
         let (md, response_stream, _ext) = self.inner.do_get(request).await?.into_parts();
-        let (response_stream, trailers) = extract_trailers(response_stream);
+        let (response_stream, trailers) = extract_lazy_trailers(response_stream);
 
         Ok(FlightRecordBatchStream::new_from_flight_data(
             response_stream.map_err(FlightError::Tonic),
diff --git a/arrow-flight/src/trailers.rs b/arrow-flight/src/trailers.rs
index aba652ad64b7..1c6578e6cd3e 100644
--- a/arrow-flight/src/trailers.rs
+++ b/arrow-flight/src/trailers.rs
@@ -24,8 +24,13 @@ use std::{
 use futures::{ready, FutureExt, Stream, StreamExt};
 use tonic::{metadata::MetadataMap, Status, Streaming};
 
-/// Extract trailers from [`Streaming`] [tonic] response.
-pub fn extract_trailers<T>(s: Streaming<T>) -> (ExtractTrailersStream<T>, LazyTrailers) {
+/// Extract [`LazyTrailers`] from [`Streaming`] [tonic] response.
+///
+/// Note that [`LazyTrailers`] has inner mutability and will only hold actual data after [`ExtractTrailersStream`] is
+/// fully consumed (dropping it is not required though).
+pub fn extract_lazy_trailers<T>(
+    s: Streaming<T>,
+) -> (ExtractTrailersStream<T>, LazyTrailers) {
     let trailers: SharedTrailers = Default::default();
     let stream = ExtractTrailersStream {
         inner: s,
diff --git a/arrow-flight/tests/client.rs b/arrow-flight/tests/client.rs
index 2d1dc76ae74b..1b9891e121fa 100644
--- a/arrow-flight/tests/client.rs
+++ b/arrow-flight/tests/client.rs
@@ -174,6 +174,9 @@ async fn test_do_get() {
             "some_val",
         );
 
+        // trailers are not available before stream exhaustion
+        assert!(response_stream.trailers().is_none());
+
         let expected_response = vec![batch];
         let response: Vec<_> = (&mut response_stream)
             .try_collect()