Volutarily Gave Up My Seat Yesterday for $500 Voucher

fidler4

fidler4

Recycles dryer sheets
Joined
Mar 31, 2013
Messages
252
It's good to be retired and flexible. I took a redeye into Newark yesterday arriving at 8am but when I got there my next flight to Pitts got cancelled so I was rebooked for a 1:40pm flight. I was on standby for a 10am flight but so were 20+ other people. It was very entertaining watching people on standby trying to talk their way into getting higher on the standby list. And for some people their story worked. I didn't get on the 10am flight but had a seat for the 1:40 so I was good. Right before boarding on the 1:40 flight they asked for 3 volunteers to give up their seat for a a $500 travel voucher. Hell ya! So I was rebooked for a 6:20 flight instead. In addition to the travel voucher the ticket counter lady gave me two $7 meal vouchers and upgraded me to 1st class on the 6:20 flight. When the 6:20 flight was boarding I saw people from the original cancelled flight on board who finally made it onto a flight. I suspect I was the only one who got a voucher though.

I saw a few pissed off people during my 8 hours in Newark Airport yesterday but I wasn't one of them.

It's good to be retired.
 
Yes, I also love the flexibility ER has given me to take advantage of such opportunities.

Glad it worked out so nicely for you.
 
Hopefully things have changed. I was excited to get a $400 voucher a few years ago when I had some flexibility. But when I went to book my free flight, there were so many restrictions I regretted volunteering. I had to take a red eye to even use the voucher. Again I hope for your sake things have changed.

http://thepointsguy.com/2014/09/flexible-airline-travel-vouchers-the-weekly-wish/

If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is...
 
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And my situation did not have a happy ending either.

I was told, by phone, if I took a later flight I would get a $100 voucher towards my next booking.

Never came in the mail. Never credited to my cc. On the phone four different times, to the tune of 10 hrs trying to get my voucher, and finally hung up and gave up.

NEVER AGAIN!!
 
If you get the offer , get the voucher and run!!!! Last year , my boss volunteered to be bumped on a very late, overbooked flight,in exchange for a voucher :D..........

While the gate agent was finishing his paperwork , an obnoxious woman who was a confirmed passenger, started causing such a ruckus due to the flight being delayed, she was tossed from the flight , and removed by security. The gate agent then assigned her seat to my boss, so he lost the voucher :facepalm: Guess who was pissed off then !
 
lampshade said:
And my situation did not have a happy ending either.

I was told, by phone, if I took a later flight I would get a $100 voucher towards my next booking.

Never came in the mail. Never credited to my cc. On the phone four different times, to the tune of 10 hrs trying to get my voucher, and finally hung up and gave up.

NEVER AGAIN!!
Click to expand...

The name of the Airline ?
 
This is a slightly different, but funny story:

I was on a flight and a young-ish girl came on with 4 or 5 bags. She was trying to get them into the overhead which was already pretty full.

Some chivalrous guy got up and proceeded to 1) take HIS bag out of the overhead and place it in the aisle, 2) stuff her things in and then 3) try to get his bag back in.

His bag now was going to be a very tight squeeze. At that point he was tying up the aisle, so the flight attendant came by, told him that there was obviously no room, politely scolded him for trying to cram a bag in there and ordered him to check his bag!

Sorry, but I couldn't stop laughing through the flight. No good deed goes unpunished!
 
Some years ago, on a vacation trip to San Antonio, the morning flight was overbooked so they asked for 2 volunteers. We did, and 2 or 3 more also did. The gate agent picked us.

In return, he gave us two free domestic round-trip tickets to anywhere that that airline flied, and rebooked us to San Antonio on another airline which required us to go to a different terminal building. This flight turned out to be non-stop, and got us to San Antonio even sooner than the original flight which stopped in Dallas. How about that?

The funny thing was that our original tickets to San Antonio were already freebies from frequent miles (this airline did not have non-stop flights to San Antone). Heh heh heh...
 
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A bit tangential, but amusing....

About 20 years ago I was on an Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Chicago. There were lots of kids. Fortunately there was a very competent young male flight attendant who went above and beyond, keeping the kids quietly amused, holding a baby while a parent retrieved some overhead luggage, etc. He was a natural. As we disembarked, the flight attendants stood close to the bulkheads to say goodbye to the passengers. His female colleague standing across the plane asked him to marry her and be the father of her children. He blushed bright red! I don't know whether he accepted, but it was a fun ending to a long flight.
 
On one trip this year, I received a call, asking if we'd be willing to take another flight since the one we were on was overbooked. We were offered either a first class upgrade on the re-booked flight or $250 vouchers. Initially, we went for the vouchers, but when we saw that there were only middle seats available, we went with first class. The nice thing was that we were re-booked on the flight we originally wanted. The earlier flight we were bumped from was gotten because it was a cheaper flight.

On another flight, I was delayed 1 hour 59 minutes because they poached a flight attendant from our plane for an earlier flight due to an illness. I read on the airline website that they provide vouchers if your flight is delayed for more than 2 hours. Since they just beat that, I didn't expect anything. A few days later, I received an email with a $75 voucher code, apologizing for the delay. Just goes to show that some airlines do care about their customers.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum
 
HFWR said:
I am shocked that airlines overbook...
Click to expand...

Seems like this is happening more and more often. I fly 5-10 times a yr for work and lately it seems like the planes are getting more and more packed... The last 4 trips I've been one have had every leg sold out. It also seems like the planes are getting smaller and smaller.
 
turbo89 said:
Seems like this is happening more and more often. I fly 5-10 times a yr for work and lately it seems like the planes are getting more and more packed... The last 4 trips I've been one have had every leg sold out. It also seems like the planes are getting smaller and smaller.
Click to expand...
I agree, but it seems planes have been flying near/full for quite a while IME, following deregulation. The upside, planes are greener now by virtue of flying 83% full these days vs 49% prior to dereg...
 
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Midpack said:
I agree, but it seems planes have been flying near/full for quite a while IME, following deregulation. The upside, planes are greener now by virtue of flying 83% full these days vs 49% prior to dereg...
Click to expand...

I know that number is "in aggregate", but I'd love to be on a flight only 83% full! Not a frequent flyer by any means, but haven't seen one that "empty" in a long while.
 
Ah hah! We all talk about saving the environment and being green, but the truth is that we wish it only for the other fellows. Yeah, let them crowd into tiny airplane seats, elbows in each other's side. Let them take public transportation, live in tiny houses, eating low in the food chain.

But for us, we want a big home cooled by AC, a fast car, and nice juicy steaks. Hypocrites, we all are.
 
I once was on a Delta flight that was cancelled due to "equipment failure". I had to spend the night @ the MPLS airport but they eventually gave me a $200 Amazon gift card for the inconvenience. I did not feel like fighting them for more stuff (I bet I could have) but now know how it is to spend the night on the floor of an airport.
 
I was flying to Montreal with a friend for a long weekend. We were flying USAir, and another friend was driving from upstate NY to meet us the next morning. Air Canada had a strike - which caused a surge of need for seats on our US Air flight. We held out till they offered R/T tickets anywhere in the continental US *and* hotel accommodations at the airport so we wouldn't have to commute home and back again for the early morning flight. We still arrived at our Canadian hotel 30 minutes before our friend.

I used my r/t ticket to fly from PHL to SEA so my bff could start fitting my wedding dress (she made it for me.) On the return I got involuntarily bumped... so they put me in first class on the next flight and ... another free r/t ticket. I used that one to fly out to visit my parents not long after the wedding.

So - paid for one ticket, got 2 more, and one upgrade to first class.
 
Chuckanut said:
Here's one explanation of why and how people get bumped and your rights.

It advises people not to volunteer since the compensation for being involuntarily bumped is much greater than what is usually offered to volunteers.

https://www.getairhelp.com/en/blog/how-to-avoid-being-bumped-from-a-flight-600#.Vb9zppNViko?utm_campaign=Flight%20bump&utm_source=Twitter&utm_content=Infographic&utm_medium=content
Click to expand...

This one is making recent rounds on the tubes.

I think A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush applies to this situation.
Chances are better that they'll get more than enough volunteers than you rolling the dice to hold out for the larger compensation, which is in no way guaranteed.
Unless you can convince other passengers to not volunteer (good luck), you won't be getting anything except a full aircraft. At best, you might get a slightly elevated voucher than those who jumped first. This all depends on how much info the gate agents have let slip (e.g. how many volunteers they need) and how closely you are paying attention.

IMHO, sit close to the gate agents and be first to volunteer.

----

FWIW, my DW was flying (Emirates) alone via Dubai and volunteered to get bumped 24 hours on the connection to her final destination. She got a nice equivalent airfare (from her origin, which was not Dubai) voucher good for one year. My guess is that it was worth at least $800, possibly twice that.
 
rodi said:
I was flying to Montreal with a friend for a long weekend. We were flying USAir, and another friend was driving from upstate NY to meet us the next morning. Air Canada had a strike - which caused a surge of need for seats on our US Air flight. We held out till they offered R/T tickets anywhere in the continental US *and* hotel accommodations at the airport so we wouldn't have to commute home and back again for the early morning flight. We still arrived at our Canadian hotel 30 minutes before our friend.
<snip>
Click to expand...

Good, somewhat counter-example to what I said. Key part is probably the "surge" (which I'm inferring to mean significantly more than 4 or 5 seats). You can probably get 4 or 5 people to volunteer off the bat. However, if you somehow know there may be more volunteers needed, then delaying might mean a better deal.
 
turbo89 said:
Seems like this is happening more and more often. I fly 5-10 times a yr for work and lately it seems like the planes are getting more and more packed... The last 4 trips I've been one have had every leg sold out. It also seems like the planes are getting smaller and smaller.
Click to expand...

On two flights from Houston to Amsterdam and another returning on a HUGE plane - a 777 - every last seat taken. I got used to this and started booking cross aisle seats as the only tolerable way to endure the trip.

Imagine my amazement when this past June, the 4th time, AMS to IAH, the plane was not full. Many economy+ seats weren't taken. We realized the boarding was done, I had two free seats between me and the window. So DH was able to move to my aisle seat, me to the window and we had a free seat between us. Seemed like such a gift! Especially for a 10.5 hr flight.
 
NW-Bound said:
Ah hah! We all talk about saving the environment and being green, but the truth is that we wish it only for the other fellows. Yeah, let them crowd into tiny airplane seats, elbows in each other's side. Let them take public transportation, live in tiny houses, eating low in the food chain.

But for us, we want a big home cooled by AC, a fast car, and nice juicy steaks. Hypocrites, we all are.
Click to expand...

Only true if you claim to want to save the environment and be green. I tend to believe we'll use up all the resources, die off, and the environment will be jut fine in the blink of a geological eye.

turbo89 said:
Seems like this is happening more and more often. I fly 5-10 times a yr for work and lately it seems like the planes are getting more and more packed... The last 4 trips I've been one have had every leg sold out. It also seems like the planes are getting smaller and smaller.
Click to expand...

DW is very paranoid about getting sick on planes, as her respiratory immune system tends to be weak. We usually fly Southwest, which has stadium seating, not assigned seats. Many of the planes are nearly full, but if there is even a single empty seat you'd be amazed at how well wearing a surgical mask and the blue nitrile gloves works for making sure nobody sits next to you. If it looks like they are thinking about it a coughing fit usually seals the deal.
 
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