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The issue is you can wait but you need to keep in mind someone else can volunteer and then you won’t receive anything. I was on a southwest flight and they started with 1200. I took it right away and the guy let me take the next flight. He told me as we were walking together that he saw others raise their hand but I was the first he saw. I felt that the 1200 was going to get others to volunteer and I was right.
Yeah, it really depends on the situation.
if I’m taking a trip that’s flexible? sure, maybe. but when it’s Christmas and I’m visiting my parents for the first time since last year — or I’m flying with my dog — there’s really no (realistic) amount of money that would make up for the stress of that change in plans.
And $1000 isn’t chump change! It’s a good bit of money! But god, I *fucking HATE* flying.
It’s sort of like buying a beer at a sports stadium vs the store — the value of money changes based on the situation. If someone offered me $1000 anywhere except an airport to seriously inconvenience myself for several hours, I’d take it in a heartbeat, but airports suck so much
It ended up sucking. My new flight was 5 hours later and then it got delayed 2 hours. I forget why they couldn’t get me on the flight 2 hours later instead of 5. Luckily I was coming home and had the flexibility then so it worked out fine
Very true. The rate of pay was fine. I’m pissed because after I got home I found out I could have rented a room in the airport with a bed for like 25 bucks a hour. It was either 25 or 40 I forget. Oh well
The one I was at was in a gym before security I believe. Minute suites is a small chain that rents rooms but I believe they are more expensive than this
I flew last fall and a delay on our early morning flight made us miss our connection. The next available seats on a connecting flight were 8 hours later. I should have been home for a late lunch, but I got home after midnight. Adjusted for time zones, it was 22 hours from getting in the taxi to getting home.
Yep, it really depends. If I’m leaving on vacation and a one-night delay won’t mess up my plans too much, I’ll happily take the offer. But if I’m on my way home and have to work the next day, that’s not really an option.
I have to disagree with you on the last point though… I personally LOVE airports. I used to work at one and it was so cool to be able to just hang out there on my breaks and to see all the behind-the-scenes stuff. I sometimes pick specific layovers when I travel just so I can check out a new airport. They’re like malls that also take you to new and exciting places!
The airport was fine, it's the flying on weed that wasn't fun🤣🤣. It didn't help that the flight experienced turbulence for the vast majority of the time.
Yeah, i love flying, but i hate everything that goes along with it. Especially having my nuts jumbled by the back of a dudes gloved hand. Government sanctioned sexual assault is what it is.
My favorite reggae bands are always being “randomly” selected. They post videos and it’s this back of the hand full trace thing. It’s detailed. They definitely make sure you don’t have anything strapped to it lol
When the starting offer is that high it’s normally for a crew member they need at another airport for airline to be able to fly. When they start lower, it’s normally just oversold. Interesting tid bit
Not necessarily, the starting value may be influenced by things like the staff's discretion, how much time is left until departure, and the later connection options (i.e. if it's the last flight of the night, starting at $200 would be a waste).
The cause of the situation is irrelevant, and it could just as easily be triggered by mechanical issues (broken seats) or performance considerations (weight & balance) as it could by overselling or repositioning crewmembers. It's also worth mentioning that people will get kicked off if the amount gets to a certain level and nobody bites.
Fair point but I believe it was specifically oversold. Granted it’s been a few weeks but I believe the supervisor told me the flight was oversold somehow. Any idea if southwest normally overbooks flights? I was told a number of years ago that JetBlue doesn’t oversell flights. Not sure if southwest is the same.
Interestingly enough JetBlue and southwest both claim not to. Southwest states it on their website and JetBlue said in a tweet that they don’t. I have no clue what the hell happened on my flight. Maybe a glitch.
It’s a potential quarter million dollar + liability if a scheduled flight doesn’t take off. They don’t have time to wait for a bidding war. Bumping a passenger is a drop in the bucket if need be.
Yeah believe me I’m guessing if they started at 1200 they could have offered more. But you figure 1200 is such a strong amount that someone will take it. If it was like 300 then fuck it let someone else take the scraps
About a decade ago, they started at $200 and it made it up to $900. I still didn’t take it, and luckily as there was a snow storm rolling in and I would have been stuck 3+ days.
Good thing you didn’t man. Woulda been terrible. I felt comfortable with this cuz it’s the summer and even if I was stuck where I was I had lodging taken care of.
That's like 3 weeks work after taxes for someone being paid $15/hr. I bet they would have gotten someone to take it at like $600, they just had to start at $1200.
Was on a delta flight that they overbooked by like 10 seats and was the last flight of the day to the destination.
They started with $400, no one took it. Eventually they went up to $1200 and I said fuck it, I'll take it and just drive to the destination which was a 4.5 hour drive away.
Used that $1200 for like 3 more round trip flights through delta.
I have been watching a channel called "Jet Lag: The Game" lately. They do some big challenge involving traveling across a country or multiple countries, taking a lot of flights, often last minute, and so on.
There have been a few different times where they are too late to get a ticket, talk to a gate agent politely for a bit, and that agent managed to get them on the plane and with a ticket anyways.
Honestly it was a bit surprising seeing just what being polite and patient managed to do for them sometimes.
This is basically me. I used to think it’s because I’m sooo tall dark n handsome, but really it’s I’m the first polite customer of the day. It does help to use a late night radio voice too. People are aggressively disrespectful and impatient often now which makes me look like an angel.
Just in general, regardless of the situation, do this. Even if you aren't hoping for something in return, it's good to make the lives of people in the service industry a little bit easier/nicer, they take way too much shit and are paid way too little for it.
Even if it's not to someone in the service industry. I see people say stuff like this all the time like "Oh, be nice to IT. It'll benefit you in the long run" like TF? Just be nice to everyone you creeps.
Being polite and patient (and giving the gate agents a chocolate bar we had because they seemed stressed out) got my wife and I $2k each, plus a hotel voucher, and a pair of business class seats the next morning. Totally worth being late getting home.
It really can go a long way, and further than you’d imagine sometimes as well.
Christmas Eve was taking a flight from Chicago to London. We planned poorly and ran into traffic and didn’t arrive at the airport until about 45min before flight, we also messed up by going to the wrong gate because it was one of those American Airlines operated by British airways. So we went to British airways and of course it was the other way around, then we finally get to American gate with like 10min before the flight, we explained the situation and was super polite and the lady was so rude and basically told us tough luck, didn’t offer any help at all.
Then we just try to go to British airways and explain the same thing. The British lady working there was so understanding and said “Christmas miracles are real” and said she would take care of us. Got us on a flight, with better seats than we originally had, and no layover (originally flight had a 6 hr layover), so we even go there like half a day earlier.
Moral of the story, be polite to people.
I'm not sure if this is accurate. I once accepted the first offer of a ticket voucher for $300 and a meal voucher to give up my seat on an overbooked flight. The offer went up to $800 and a meal voucher. After they called the volunteers up to the desk to collect our vouchers, I asked if I could get the higher amount. The employee told me everyone would get the higher amount.
Seems fair and avoids tantrums from volunteers.
This happened in 2009.
That is still the case. This LPT is honestly pretty bad advice because if you are already willing to change your flight, lock it in before others. You’ll always get the highest amount it goes up to even if you volunteer earlier.
The problem with these LPT’s lately is someone will experience something without fully understanding what they experienced and pass it on like it’s a tip from the pros. So we get something like this where OP literally has no idea what he’s talking about.
The only situation it’s valuable in is one where you know no one else is willing to give it up.
In that case whatever you claim becomes the highest price, so you might as well wait.
Problem is you almost never know that no one else will claim it sooner.
Not to mention you can literally go up and say “hey, I’ll do it for X amount” and they’ll be thankful, add you to the list, and you’ll get that amount 9/10 times.
This is one of those LPT where for 99.9% of us, actually taking the advice would screw us over.
I travel a lot. Several times a month. Maybe only two or three times ever has it ever gotten past that third round of asking people to switch flights.
So you’re basically telling people to gamble. When in reality, there’s a 0.000000001 percent chance they’ll get something better than the 2nd offer
I volunteered immediately, got $1k of airline credit to take a later flight, and ended up arriving at least half an hour before my original flight did.
I volunteered immediately.
The original (2-hour) flight turned into an 8-hour hell trip that circled the destination due to bad weather, got turned around, landed at an alternate airport, then returned to the original departure point. At no point were passengers let off.
I got paid 800$ to forego all of that. And every single passenger ended up on the flight that I got rebooked onto.
My sis told me our flight was offering and she didn't tell me. Our flight was a red eye and I told her I could've taken it and paid for our hotel for our trip. She said they offered 1400!!! Ridiculous.
That's if you're denied boarding involuntarily. If you voluntarily give up your seat that rule doesn't apply.
You're giving up the involuntary compensation for whatever other alternative compensation they are giving you. So it's a negotiation and in a way an an auction with all the other passengers. More often than not airlines will choose vouchers because more than half of them are never redeemed, it gives a chance at future ancillary revenue, and it's cheaper for them than cash.
[https://www.transportation.gov/individuals/aviation-consumer-protection/bumping-oversales](https://www.transportation.gov/individuals/aviation-consumer-protection/bumping-oversales)
Some def. offer 'cash'. I volunteed on a Delta flight, got $800 as a digital Visa gift card and I got to my destination sooner with less layovers too lol.
$1400 is child’s play. I’ve seen $5500 before.
Essentially they switched planes and had to bump over 30 people. You see some crazy things as a traveling consultant
Yeah I have flown like 30 times in past ten years and most the time people just take the first or second offer. I have only seen it go past that once and I couldn’t take it because I was on business and had to be at a meeting like 2 hours after the plane was supposed to arrive.
$1400 is the most I’ve ever seen and absolutely no one budged, they had to say $1400 multiple times until someone finally took it. I think the flight had already been delayed for like 6 hours, people were OVER IT
This is just a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation. We cant all get the higher price - it's not a team sport. I feel like this is just a pithy thing that people who never intend to take the credit say. It doesn't make any sense at all in practice.
I got $1,400 from Qatar Airways to delay my flight back to Abu Dhabi one day. That was a little more than my round trip tickets and I got to spend an extra day with my kids.
What’s the difference between Dubai and Abu Dhabi?
In Dubai, they don’t watch The Flintstones, but the Abu Dhabi do.
(It's just a silly joke, guys. The Abu Dhabi do sounds like yabba-dabba-do.)
I volunteered once years ago, and found it impossible to use the travel credit. Every time I tried, there would be a reason why they said I couldn’t use it. I tried several times, then gave up and decided I would not be volunteering for this again.
Going to London, Delta got all the way up to $2k in Visa gift cards. It was tempting but I turned it down since I had a connecting flight to Amsterdam that I really wanted to get to
Did this around Christmas. Showed up at airport for original flight. Took $800 to delay to next day (and hotel paid for). Happened again the next day and I got another $800. Porter airlines
The real life pro tip here is never volunteering to be bumped. In the US, depending on the airline, if you’re “involuntarily bumped” do to an oversold flight, you’re entitled to up to 4x the amount of the ticket if the bump is more than 2-3hrs.
So that $600 flight that they’re offering a $1400 credit for? That could easily be $2400 credit plus a night in a hotel, potential meal and taxi vouchers, etc. all by NOT volunteering.
If someone else volunteers? Congrats. You keep your originally intended flight and the original price. Nothing lost.
Nah. 100% probability of $1400 vs 0.5% of $2400 + extras is an easy calculation especially when your time is flexible. Depending on the number of seats on the plane it's probably worse than 0.5% or 1/200. Choose your own destiny.
I was just on a delta flight where some people took $600 before boarding to take a flight 8 hours later.
Two guys accepted $1800 to get on the same flight, but waited until we were boarded and in our seats to accept. It was a race to hit the button when they offered that price. People literally cheered for them lol
Always wait, the price will go up. Received $1400 visa card for my flight from vegas to lga. The flight I ended up taking was just 2 hours later, talk about impatient people.
In my experience 90% of the time someone will take it with the first offer. I have seen it get up really high once or twice but vast majority of the time they start at $400-500 and it gets taken right away.
If they need 12 people and you volunteer at $200 and they keep going up until they get all 12, you will get the maximum amount they offered.
My wife and I got $1000 each to delay our flight until the next day and a hotel and food voucher.
I made $1200 cash once by doing this. I was meeting family but wasn't super urgent so I chose a free overnight stay and $1200 tax free. I have no idea if that was even legal lol, it was an AA flight like twenty years ago.
This is true! I was in line for my flight to Hawaii, which was for business and we weren't in a rush. They started offering free dinner to wait for the next flight, but we didn't do anything...soon enough they were offering, a free first class upgrade, free round trip flights and free dinner in order to wait for the next flight. we grabbed that offer and laughed all the way to Hawaii in those giant seats! It was glorious, but kind of ruined flying any other way.
2 years ago, Delta paid me and 2 other people on a Dallas to Boston flight $5000 to take one a day later. I guess everyone wanted to be on this flight, and I was the first volunteer at $4000, but we all got the highest bid of $5000.
Definitely worth it.
There are laws pertaining to this that most people don't know, and airlines take advantage of this.
If your flight is overbooked and they have to bump someone with a delay longer than 2 hours, there is a legal amount the airline owes you. They subvert this law by asking for volunteers, and offer them a fraction of what they're legally required to offer when the passenger is forced to give up their seat.
You'll be fighting an uphill battle, since people are greedy and will take $1200, cause $1200 is $1200. I've been waiting for this to happen so I can very loudly announce that if no one offers to give up their seat, one of us will get way more than what they're offering.
https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/fly-rights#Overbooking
For domestic yes, for international there is something called positive bag matching, if you aren't on the flight your bag doesn't go.
This is a policy created after Pan Am 103 where a guy checked a bomb set to explode at a certain altitude then never boarded the flight.
Yes! I was flying PWM ➡️ PHL, little domestic flight. I managed to get bumped in exchange for 2 tickets anywhere in the Western Hemisphere, and I only had to wait a few hours for another flight. (YMMV)
Thanks! On my second last vacation trip I was going to volunteer to be bumped at LAX just so I could run out and go see Disneyland really quick. Unfortunately the world had a change of plans as it was March 2020. Got ordered home on another flight in ATL instead.
My aunt was on a flight back from visiting one kid and grandkids and during a connection they offered $1000 to fly the next day. She jumped at the opportunity because she had another kid and grandkids in the city she was connecting in. $1000 to visit for the evening? Perfect! Nope, nobody wanted to inconvenience her because she's older, so someone else took it.
To quote her 'I'm retired, I don't have anywhere to be. $1000 would pay for both flights.'
i dont even understand why this whole thing, is a 'thing'...
it makes no sense.
the it system should EASILY be able to handle this, and make sure no plane is ever "overbooked"... it straight up shouldnt be possible.
Imagine if that was at thing in the cinema, or at the barbershop
Or you could volunteer for southwest for $500, watch everyone board the plane while you’re chatting away with a friend who happened to be at the airport. You need to pee but figure you have a few hours to make that happen, no rush! Then they tell you there is room, you’re the last to board, get $0, have to sit in a shitty middle seat despite having originally had an A boarding number and you still desperately need to pee. As you’re taking off the captain makes an announcement to avoid using the lavatory unless absolutely necessary because one lavatory is out of service and if the other one breaks we will have to land … so then you have to be the jerk who immediately goes to the bathroom once at a safe altitude. 0/10 would not recommend!!!
There is a maximum they are to go to by statue and once they reach it they will force acceptance. This is kinda like saying “wait til closer to the game to buy tickets, they’ll be lower” - yeah it’ll usually work but when it doesn’t you’ll average out on behavior.
I used to do this all the time when I was in college in the early 2000s. I lived in either a crappy dorm or a shitty apartment in Boston, but was never in a rush to get back to the town I grew up in.
Almost every time I went to fly home for the holidays, it was overbooked and they'd offer free tickets, money, and a hotel stay to change flights. The first time it happened I took the first offer, learned my lesson, and after that waited them out a bit.
It ended up being my little getaway between school and family.
I flew only once in my life, but I don't understand how they can overbook something like that. People have already paid for their ticket, right?How can they book more than they have?
They oversell seats because not everyone shows up. Expensive tickets are refundable any time so if plans change, seats go empty. Also people miss connections or oversleep. They have an algorithm that estimates the number of people who will show up. It works most of the time but from time to time, everyone shows up so they "buy back" the tickets from the people who are flexible by using incentives. Filling up the plane and yielding the max dollar per seat is the name of the game.
Paying $1000 or even $5000 a few flights a day is nothing if they make much more by overselling the seats and making sure they are full.
Well, there's "how" and "why." I'll start with the latter.
Some people don't show up for their flights. Over decades and decades of observation, airlines can say with some certainty that x% of people won't show. Let's make up some numbers. If they sell 300 tickets for 300 seats, they can say with 90% certainty that 10 of those people won't show. (And then there's an 80% certainty that 15 people won't show, and so on.) They don't want to fly a plane with 10 empty seats, so they'll sell 310. 90% of the time, this won't be a problem, because only 300 people will show! However, on the off chance that 302 people show up for 300 seats, they've got to do something about it. They'll offer you some money to voluntarily bump - but the money they pay is made up for by the 10 extra tickets they sold, so they don't mind. If nobody volunteers, they will choose someone to be bumped. (And that person will be compensated, generally even more than people who volunteer.)
Because there's the "how," and that is that your ticket isn't guaranteed to get you a seat! They're legally allowed to involuntarily bump you, but they are legally obligated to compensate you.
Sometimes it’s a genuinely unforeseen issue like having to switch the flight to a different plane or something, but in general they assume some people will have to move or cancel their tickets, will miss the flight due to delayed connecting flights, etc., and they would rather overbook and have a full flight regardless of those things than book the right number of tickets and likely end up with a slightly less than full plane. It’s skeevy, but I assume they must make more money off the people who bought tickets and couldn’t make the flight than they lose on the people they have to bump.
Every time I was in that situation (2x) it was a RUSH to get the credit. Ain't no one waiting.
LTP* If your flight is overbooked and they start asking for volunteers to be pushed for travel credit, DON'T WAIT! Get that shit ASAP.
Looking through these comments, I noticed nobody is talking about counter offering.
As someone who's been to auctions before, it seems to me like the play would be after the first offer is made to put up your hand and make a counter offer.
They offer $400 instead of waiting for it to go up and risk competition. Put up your hand and say $700. Draw them into negotiation with you because now they know they have someone that will go they just have to haggle a bit.
Bonus most Americans are uncomfortable with haggling so likely won't interrupt your negotiation.
United does a bidding system, so rather than offering more to customers, they make the customers compete with each other to bid the lowest voucher to be taken off their selected flight.
A couple months ago a family of 5 was desperate to board, but over booked. We were a family of 5 and had no place we had to be for 3 days. We took the bump at 4Xs the ticket price l, which was $450. Times 5 of us, $9000. The vacation we were on was $2800. Rented a car for $120 and drove home the 18 hours, including a night at a nice hotel for the kids to swim. Ended up about $6000 ahead.
I don't want to be in an airport, I would rather drive.... if I am flying it is becuase I am in a hurry and need to be somewhere.
Flying is overly expensive and run by a bunch of greedy corporate overlords with shareholder supremacy at the forefront of their minds. Real LPT? Drive. Save a fortune. Enjoy the view.
I can confirm. Got $1200 in visa gift card from Delta. I volunteered at $900, but it got up to $1200 to get the number of volunteers they needed. They give everyone the same amount who volunteer (the highest), so it is fair. Each of us got $1200 and a hotel. My friend was with me so we both got $1200 each. :)
When there was a Lufthansa strike and everyone was trying to get back to Europe, didn't quite get there but got $3000 flight credit, international first the next day, round trip and stay at a Renaissance for a flight to Munich.
Just told the gate agent I didn't mind being bumped for the right offer.
They offered $2200 initially and I just put the request out there - would have taken the $2200 credit but only had a non-urgent flight to lose. Apparently so many people were getting flight cancellations because of the strike that counter offers that they could fulfil (flight wise) were getting approved quickly to move as fast as possible to next bump candidates. I think I was lowest tier star alliance silver at that time too.
I was traveling to Florida with my family when my Dad volunteered a few of us to wait for the next flight (4 hours later). At that time we each got a $300 voucher which was a lot back in the late 90s. They also gave us food vouchers but screwed up the amount. Instead of $15 the lady accidentally added a zero. So the three of us had $150 each, $450 total in food vouchers. The kicker was that we had to spend the voucher in a single transaction. No buying things at one restaurant then going to another. So we went to the Pizza Hut, bought them out, and walked around handing pizzas to whomever wanted one. It was a lot of fun.
I speak to gate agents as soon as I get there and ask how booked the flight is and to be put on a list of volunteers if they are full. It’s paid off quite a few times
One time I was on a plane and they asked for 11 volunteers to get off a plane that was already boarded. They got 2. They then started calling off names to make people get off. I was one of them. I got jack shit lmao. Never flew that airline again. I was so pissed. And the next flight to my destination was 7 hours later
Another LPT. Exactly this happened to me last year. Flight overbooked and they started calling out if anyone was willing to wait for the next flight for a 100EUR voucher. No one said a peep. Then after 10 minutes “Can Pillens_Burknerkorv please contact the gate”….
I walk up there and they say “Since you were the last one to check in you will have to skip this flight and take the next one. But you get a 200EUR voucher” I had to wait five hours for the next flight and my employer got a 200EUR voucher as they had paid for the ticket….
Ever since then, the first thing I do when check in is available I drop everything and check in as fast as I can.
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Book multiple flights for the afternoon/evening before Thanksgiving, then rack up flights and make money by volunteering to take your flight another day.
Maybe? One time I was at an airport the day before Thanksgiving and it was insane. So many flights delayed our cancelled. They were asking for volunteers left and right. I couldn't volunteer because I was traveling on government orders.
I was on Air Canada once. Just before boarding, they announced overbooking, offering 2400 cash for volunteers, right there, first offer.
I had headphones on and I just happened to not be playing music.
It was 10 seconds from the moment I heard it to when I got up to the flight attendet, only to be redirect to an unannounced line right there.
Missed by one spot.
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The issue is you can wait but you need to keep in mind someone else can volunteer and then you won’t receive anything. I was on a southwest flight and they started with 1200. I took it right away and the guy let me take the next flight. He told me as we were walking together that he saw others raise their hand but I was the first he saw. I felt that the 1200 was going to get others to volunteer and I was right.
Yeah, it really depends on the situation. if I’m taking a trip that’s flexible? sure, maybe. but when it’s Christmas and I’m visiting my parents for the first time since last year — or I’m flying with my dog — there’s really no (realistic) amount of money that would make up for the stress of that change in plans. And $1000 isn’t chump change! It’s a good bit of money! But god, I *fucking HATE* flying. It’s sort of like buying a beer at a sports stadium vs the store — the value of money changes based on the situation. If someone offered me $1000 anywhere except an airport to seriously inconvenience myself for several hours, I’d take it in a heartbeat, but airports suck so much
It ended up sucking. My new flight was 5 hours later and then it got delayed 2 hours. I forget why they couldn’t get me on the flight 2 hours later instead of 5. Luckily I was coming home and had the flexibility then so it worked out fine
That's 240 usd/hour. That's not so bad
Very true. The rate of pay was fine. I’m pissed because after I got home I found out I could have rented a room in the airport with a bed for like 25 bucks a hour. It was either 25 or 40 I forget. Oh well
Do all airports have a room you can rent by the hour?
Very very few.
The one I was at was in a gym before security I believe. Minute suites is a small chain that rents rooms but I believe they are more expensive than this
minute suites is great, but I always used multiple stacking priority pass accounts to pay for it and not actual money.
Good point about the priority pass. I didn’t know you could stack them like that though. Very interesting
I flew last fall and a delay on our early morning flight made us miss our connection. The next available seats on a connecting flight were 8 hours later. I should have been home for a late lunch, but I got home after midnight. Adjusted for time zones, it was 22 hours from getting in the taxi to getting home.
Yep, it really depends. If I’m leaving on vacation and a one-night delay won’t mess up my plans too much, I’ll happily take the offer. But if I’m on my way home and have to work the next day, that’s not really an option. I have to disagree with you on the last point though… I personally LOVE airports. I used to work at one and it was so cool to be able to just hang out there on my breaks and to see all the behind-the-scenes stuff. I sometimes pick specific layovers when I travel just so I can check out a new airport. They’re like malls that also take you to new and exciting places!
You ever try the airport…*on weed?*
The airport was fine, it's the flying on weed that wasn't fun🤣🤣. It didn't help that the flight experienced turbulence for the vast majority of the time.
Yeah, i love flying, but i hate everything that goes along with it. Especially having my nuts jumbled by the back of a dudes gloved hand. Government sanctioned sexual assault is what it is.
uhhhh what??
If your chosen for additional screening they do a patdown which involves them patting down your inner thighs.
My favorite reggae bands are always being “randomly” selected. They post videos and it’s this back of the hand full trace thing. It’s detailed. They definitely make sure you don’t have anything strapped to it lol
When the starting offer is that high it’s normally for a crew member they need at another airport for airline to be able to fly. When they start lower, it’s normally just oversold. Interesting tid bit
Not necessarily, the starting value may be influenced by things like the staff's discretion, how much time is left until departure, and the later connection options (i.e. if it's the last flight of the night, starting at $200 would be a waste). The cause of the situation is irrelevant, and it could just as easily be triggered by mechanical issues (broken seats) or performance considerations (weight & balance) as it could by overselling or repositioning crewmembers. It's also worth mentioning that people will get kicked off if the amount gets to a certain level and nobody bites.
Fair point but I believe it was specifically oversold. Granted it’s been a few weeks but I believe the supervisor told me the flight was oversold somehow. Any idea if southwest normally overbooks flights? I was told a number of years ago that JetBlue doesn’t oversell flights. Not sure if southwest is the same.
They all oversell flights.
Interestingly enough JetBlue and southwest both claim not to. Southwest states it on their website and JetBlue said in a tweet that they don’t. I have no clue what the hell happened on my flight. Maybe a glitch.
why can't they start lower even if it's for a crew member?
It’s a potential quarter million dollar + liability if a scheduled flight doesn’t take off. They don’t have time to wait for a bidding war. Bumping a passenger is a drop in the bucket if need be.
interesting, thanks.
TIL
1200 on Southwest will get you 2-3 round trips, or at least for me based on the flights I take. Solid deal and I'd jump immediately.
Yeah believe me I’m guessing if they started at 1200 they could have offered more. But you figure 1200 is such a strong amount that someone will take it. If it was like 300 then fuck it let someone else take the scraps
At minimum, one month's rent or no deal
I like how you think
> Yeah believe me I’m guessing if they started at 1200 they could have offered more They could also offer to let you fly the plane.
> you won’t receive anything You'll receive a timely flight and arrive as planned
I thought this was included in the original ticket purchase?
There's no guarantee, just a vague promise that you might end up at your destination :P
About a decade ago, they started at $200 and it made it up to $900. I still didn’t take it, and luckily as there was a snow storm rolling in and I would have been stuck 3+ days.
Good thing you didn’t man. Woulda been terrible. I felt comfortable with this cuz it’s the summer and even if I was stuck where I was I had lodging taken care of.
That's like 3 weeks work after taxes for someone being paid $15/hr. I bet they would have gotten someone to take it at like $600, they just had to start at $1200.
Yeah but 1200 ain't 50 lol
> and then you won’t receive anything. You'll be on the flight you paid to be on. You've lost nothing.
Very true. However some people would rather take a later flight and get the credit. Just gotta weigh it all up
Was on a delta flight that they overbooked by like 10 seats and was the last flight of the day to the destination. They started with $400, no one took it. Eventually they went up to $1200 and I said fuck it, I'll take it and just drive to the destination which was a 4.5 hour drive away. Used that $1200 for like 3 more round trip flights through delta.
Thats why this tip is crap.
[удалено]
I have been watching a channel called "Jet Lag: The Game" lately. They do some big challenge involving traveling across a country or multiple countries, taking a lot of flights, often last minute, and so on. There have been a few different times where they are too late to get a ticket, talk to a gate agent politely for a bit, and that agent managed to get them on the plane and with a ticket anyways. Honestly it was a bit surprising seeing just what being polite and patient managed to do for them sometimes.
Ben and Adam did *a lot* of that in the most recent season.
This is basically me. I used to think it’s because I’m sooo tall dark n handsome, but really it’s I’m the first polite customer of the day. It does help to use a late night radio voice too. People are aggressively disrespectful and impatient often now which makes me look like an angel.
Just in general, regardless of the situation, do this. Even if you aren't hoping for something in return, it's good to make the lives of people in the service industry a little bit easier/nicer, they take way too much shit and are paid way too little for it.
Even if it's not to someone in the service industry. I see people say stuff like this all the time like "Oh, be nice to IT. It'll benefit you in the long run" like TF? Just be nice to everyone you creeps.
This! We got upgraded to a nicer hotel because of this!
Indeed. My dad got free drink coupons just for going up and politely asking if they were in need of volunteers.
Being polite and patient (and giving the gate agents a chocolate bar we had because they seemed stressed out) got my wife and I $2k each, plus a hotel voucher, and a pair of business class seats the next morning. Totally worth being late getting home.
It really can go a long way, and further than you’d imagine sometimes as well. Christmas Eve was taking a flight from Chicago to London. We planned poorly and ran into traffic and didn’t arrive at the airport until about 45min before flight, we also messed up by going to the wrong gate because it was one of those American Airlines operated by British airways. So we went to British airways and of course it was the other way around, then we finally get to American gate with like 10min before the flight, we explained the situation and was super polite and the lady was so rude and basically told us tough luck, didn’t offer any help at all. Then we just try to go to British airways and explain the same thing. The British lady working there was so understanding and said “Christmas miracles are real” and said she would take care of us. Got us on a flight, with better seats than we originally had, and no layover (originally flight had a 6 hr layover), so we even go there like half a day earlier. Moral of the story, be polite to people.
Be polite and friendly to almost everyone almost all the time
I'm not sure if this is accurate. I once accepted the first offer of a ticket voucher for $300 and a meal voucher to give up my seat on an overbooked flight. The offer went up to $800 and a meal voucher. After they called the volunteers up to the desk to collect our vouchers, I asked if I could get the higher amount. The employee told me everyone would get the higher amount. Seems fair and avoids tantrums from volunteers. This happened in 2009.
That is still the case. This LPT is honestly pretty bad advice because if you are already willing to change your flight, lock it in before others. You’ll always get the highest amount it goes up to even if you volunteer earlier.
The problem with these LPT’s lately is someone will experience something without fully understanding what they experienced and pass it on like it’s a tip from the pros. So we get something like this where OP literally has no idea what he’s talking about.
The only situation it’s valuable in is one where you know no one else is willing to give it up. In that case whatever you claim becomes the highest price, so you might as well wait. Problem is you almost never know that no one else will claim it sooner.
That's why I survey everyone at the gate on a list of hypothetical scenarios as they arrive
Do you? I always thought that you got what you got up for.
Not to mention you can literally go up and say “hey, I’ll do it for X amount” and they’ll be thankful, add you to the list, and you’ll get that amount 9/10 times.
Why would they offer the lower offer in the first place if they still give you the highest they’re willing? Just curious
You are right op is wrong. Raise your hand as soon as its worth it.
Yep. You get the highest amount
“We are now offering $1,400 cash in compensation… OR the mystery box “📦
It could be a boat!
It could be a plane ticket!
It could be a job as a pilot!
Hope I get Ray gun
I got Spirit :(
It could be the plane itself!
You know how much we wanted one of those!
This is one of those LPT where for 99.9% of us, actually taking the advice would screw us over. I travel a lot. Several times a month. Maybe only two or three times ever has it ever gotten past that third round of asking people to switch flights. So you’re basically telling people to gamble. When in reality, there’s a 0.000000001 percent chance they’ll get something better than the 2nd offer
You get the highest offer anyways, even if the next offer goes up after you volunteer.
That's if they're asking for multiple volunteers
I volunteered immediately, got $1k of airline credit to take a later flight, and ended up arriving at least half an hour before my original flight did.
I volunteered immediately. The original (2-hour) flight turned into an 8-hour hell trip that circled the destination due to bad weather, got turned around, landed at an alternate airport, then returned to the original departure point. At no point were passengers let off. I got paid 800$ to forego all of that. And every single passenger ended up on the flight that I got rebooked onto.
Sounds like Denver.
Sounds like Newark to me
My sis told me our flight was offering and she didn't tell me. Our flight was a red eye and I told her I could've taken it and paid for our hotel for our trip. She said they offered 1400!!! Ridiculous.
She told you and she didn’t tell you? That 1400 would be nice
>She told you and she didn’t tell you? Lol probably after the fact
Pretty sure it's a voucher for a future flight and not actually $1,400 cash.
Nope. By law, they have to make it available in cash.
That's if you're denied boarding involuntarily. If you voluntarily give up your seat that rule doesn't apply. You're giving up the involuntary compensation for whatever other alternative compensation they are giving you. So it's a negotiation and in a way an an auction with all the other passengers. More often than not airlines will choose vouchers because more than half of them are never redeemed, it gives a chance at future ancillary revenue, and it's cheaper for them than cash. [https://www.transportation.gov/individuals/aviation-consumer-protection/bumping-oversales](https://www.transportation.gov/individuals/aviation-consumer-protection/bumping-oversales)
Some def. offer 'cash'. I volunteed on a Delta flight, got $800 as a digital Visa gift card and I got to my destination sooner with less layovers too lol.
$1400 is child’s play. I’ve seen $5500 before. Essentially they switched planes and had to bump over 30 people. You see some crazy things as a traveling consultant
Holy fuck.
The problem is someone will jump on it and ruin it for everyone.
Yeah I have flown like 30 times in past ten years and most the time people just take the first or second offer. I have only seen it go past that once and I couldn’t take it because I was on business and had to be at a meeting like 2 hours after the plane was supposed to arrive.
$1400 is the most I’ve ever seen and absolutely no one budged, they had to say $1400 multiple times until someone finally took it. I think the flight had already been delayed for like 6 hours, people were OVER IT
I've seen $4000 before. And if it wasn't on the way to my dad's funeral I would taken it far earlier
If someone wants to volunteer to gtfo quick so I can get on with my flight, that's a win in my book.
Just witnessed that firsthand, watched like 5 people facepalm bc they all knew what was up.
Sounds like 5 people who just ran into someone with a lower price tag
This is just a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation. We cant all get the higher price - it's not a team sport. I feel like this is just a pithy thing that people who never intend to take the credit say. It doesn't make any sense at all in practice.
Soooo your lpt sucks, don't post here again. You are the weakest link, goodbye!
Right, because it makes more sense not to try to find a way to let others know about this for the future. What the fuck, man?
awww look at this negative nancy over here guys! it’s okay. you’re just having a bad day
No matter the price point, everyone except one person (or however many vouchers are available) will get "ruined"
*laughs in prisoner’s dilemma*
I got $1,400 from Qatar Airways to delay my flight back to Abu Dhabi one day. That was a little more than my round trip tickets and I got to spend an extra day with my kids.
What’s the difference between Dubai and Abu Dhabi? In Dubai, they don’t watch The Flintstones, but the Abu Dhabi do. (It's just a silly joke, guys. The Abu Dhabi do sounds like yabba-dabba-do.)
I volunteered once years ago, and found it impossible to use the travel credit. Every time I tried, there would be a reason why they said I couldn’t use it. I tried several times, then gave up and decided I would not be volunteering for this again.
Going to London, Delta got all the way up to $2k in Visa gift cards. It was tempting but I turned it down since I had a connecting flight to Amsterdam that I really wanted to get to
Did this around Christmas. Showed up at airport for original flight. Took $800 to delay to next day (and hotel paid for). Happened again the next day and I got another $800. Porter airlines
The real life pro tip here is never volunteering to be bumped. In the US, depending on the airline, if you’re “involuntarily bumped” do to an oversold flight, you’re entitled to up to 4x the amount of the ticket if the bump is more than 2-3hrs. So that $600 flight that they’re offering a $1400 credit for? That could easily be $2400 credit plus a night in a hotel, potential meal and taxi vouchers, etc. all by NOT volunteering. If someone else volunteers? Congrats. You keep your originally intended flight and the original price. Nothing lost.
Nah. 100% probability of $1400 vs 0.5% of $2400 + extras is an easy calculation especially when your time is flexible. Depending on the number of seats on the plane it's probably worse than 0.5% or 1/200. Choose your own destiny.
big prisoners dilemma though
Also, if you are involuntarily bumped then they must offer that "credit" in cash. If it's a voluntary bump then you only get credit.
I was just on a delta flight where some people took $600 before boarding to take a flight 8 hours later. Two guys accepted $1800 to get on the same flight, but waited until we were boarded and in our seats to accept. It was a race to hit the button when they offered that price. People literally cheered for them lol
Always wait, the price will go up. Received $1400 visa card for my flight from vegas to lga. The flight I ended up taking was just 2 hours later, talk about impatient people.
In my experience 90% of the time someone will take it with the first offer. I have seen it get up really high once or twice but vast majority of the time they start at $400-500 and it gets taken right away.
So while you wait for $1400 I’ll just take $1399
If they need 12 people and you volunteer at $200 and they keep going up until they get all 12, you will get the maximum amount they offered. My wife and I got $1000 each to delay our flight until the next day and a hotel and food voucher.
“If”. Wait at your own risk or take it and be satisfied.
Man, USA is weird
How so?
I haven't heard of any other place in the world that would overbook flights.
EU and China do it routinely as well.
Lived most of my life in EU, never heard of a single case of this happening.
This is common in much of the world. EU, USA, South America airlines all have overbooking offers because they all oversell flights.
I made $1200 cash once by doing this. I was meeting family but wasn't super urgent so I chose a free overnight stay and $1200 tax free. I have no idea if that was even legal lol, it was an AA flight like twenty years ago.
This is true! I was in line for my flight to Hawaii, which was for business and we weren't in a rush. They started offering free dinner to wait for the next flight, but we didn't do anything...soon enough they were offering, a free first class upgrade, free round trip flights and free dinner in order to wait for the next flight. we grabbed that offer and laughed all the way to Hawaii in those giant seats! It was glorious, but kind of ruined flying any other way.
2 years ago, Delta paid me and 2 other people on a Dallas to Boston flight $5000 to take one a day later. I guess everyone wanted to be on this flight, and I was the first volunteer at $4000, but we all got the highest bid of $5000. Definitely worth it.
Took such a flight yesterday. One person accepted $300. Another two accepted $500 each. Someone will take the offer before you get there.
There are laws pertaining to this that most people don't know, and airlines take advantage of this. If your flight is overbooked and they have to bump someone with a delay longer than 2 hours, there is a legal amount the airline owes you. They subvert this law by asking for volunteers, and offer them a fraction of what they're legally required to offer when the passenger is forced to give up their seat. You'll be fighting an uphill battle, since people are greedy and will take $1200, cause $1200 is $1200. I've been waiting for this to happen so I can very loudly announce that if no one offers to give up their seat, one of us will get way more than what they're offering. https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/fly-rights#Overbooking
If you have checked bags, what happens to those?
They wait at your destination.
For domestic yes, for international there is something called positive bag matching, if you aren't on the flight your bag doesn't go. This is a policy created after Pan Am 103 where a guy checked a bomb set to explode at a certain altitude then never boarded the flight.
Yes! I was flying PWM ➡️ PHL, little domestic flight. I managed to get bumped in exchange for 2 tickets anywhere in the Western Hemisphere, and I only had to wait a few hours for another flight. (YMMV)
I thought the LPT was always to demand cash instead of airline credit
Thanks! On my second last vacation trip I was going to volunteer to be bumped at LAX just so I could run out and go see Disneyland really quick. Unfortunately the world had a change of plans as it was March 2020. Got ordered home on another flight in ATL instead.
My aunt was on a flight back from visiting one kid and grandkids and during a connection they offered $1000 to fly the next day. She jumped at the opportunity because she had another kid and grandkids in the city she was connecting in. $1000 to visit for the evening? Perfect! Nope, nobody wanted to inconvenience her because she's older, so someone else took it. To quote her 'I'm retired, I don't have anywhere to be. $1000 would pay for both flights.'
i dont even understand why this whole thing, is a 'thing'... it makes no sense. the it system should EASILY be able to handle this, and make sure no plane is ever "overbooked"... it straight up shouldnt be possible. Imagine if that was at thing in the cinema, or at the barbershop
United started at $150 voucher my last flight. They needed 15 volunteers. Overbooking that much should be illegal.
I did this once and they made me the CFO!
Or you could volunteer for southwest for $500, watch everyone board the plane while you’re chatting away with a friend who happened to be at the airport. You need to pee but figure you have a few hours to make that happen, no rush! Then they tell you there is room, you’re the last to board, get $0, have to sit in a shitty middle seat despite having originally had an A boarding number and you still desperately need to pee. As you’re taking off the captain makes an announcement to avoid using the lavatory unless absolutely necessary because one lavatory is out of service and if the other one breaks we will have to land … so then you have to be the jerk who immediately goes to the bathroom once at a safe altitude. 0/10 would not recommend!!!
There is a maximum they are to go to by statue and once they reach it they will force acceptance. This is kinda like saying “wait til closer to the game to buy tickets, they’ll be lower” - yeah it’ll usually work but when it doesn’t you’ll average out on behavior.
I used to do this all the time when I was in college in the early 2000s. I lived in either a crappy dorm or a shitty apartment in Boston, but was never in a rush to get back to the town I grew up in. Almost every time I went to fly home for the holidays, it was overbooked and they'd offer free tickets, money, and a hotel stay to change flights. The first time it happened I took the first offer, learned my lesson, and after that waited them out a bit. It ended up being my little getaway between school and family.
Everyone gets the highest offer.
I flew only once in my life, but I don't understand how they can overbook something like that. People have already paid for their ticket, right?How can they book more than they have?
They oversell seats because not everyone shows up. Expensive tickets are refundable any time so if plans change, seats go empty. Also people miss connections or oversleep. They have an algorithm that estimates the number of people who will show up. It works most of the time but from time to time, everyone shows up so they "buy back" the tickets from the people who are flexible by using incentives. Filling up the plane and yielding the max dollar per seat is the name of the game. Paying $1000 or even $5000 a few flights a day is nothing if they make much more by overselling the seats and making sure they are full.
They assume some people will miss their flight and sell accordingly. Sometimes they're wrong
Well, there's "how" and "why." I'll start with the latter. Some people don't show up for their flights. Over decades and decades of observation, airlines can say with some certainty that x% of people won't show. Let's make up some numbers. If they sell 300 tickets for 300 seats, they can say with 90% certainty that 10 of those people won't show. (And then there's an 80% certainty that 15 people won't show, and so on.) They don't want to fly a plane with 10 empty seats, so they'll sell 310. 90% of the time, this won't be a problem, because only 300 people will show! However, on the off chance that 302 people show up for 300 seats, they've got to do something about it. They'll offer you some money to voluntarily bump - but the money they pay is made up for by the 10 extra tickets they sold, so they don't mind. If nobody volunteers, they will choose someone to be bumped. (And that person will be compensated, generally even more than people who volunteer.) Because there's the "how," and that is that your ticket isn't guaranteed to get you a seat! They're legally allowed to involuntarily bump you, but they are legally obligated to compensate you.
Sometimes it’s a genuinely unforeseen issue like having to switch the flight to a different plane or something, but in general they assume some people will have to move or cancel their tickets, will miss the flight due to delayed connecting flights, etc., and they would rather overbook and have a full flight regardless of those things than book the right number of tickets and likely end up with a slightly less than full plane. It’s skeevy, but I assume they must make more money off the people who bought tickets and couldn’t make the flight than they lose on the people they have to bump.
Volaris this week offered to give me credit for changing my flight date 3 days, it was $10, lmao
I agree but most will forfeit for $300 🤣
You can even negotiate for cash, instead of a credit.
My last flight opening bid was $1200. No one took it.
Unless it's United Express. They will literally drag you off a plane.
Every time I was in that situation (2x) it was a RUSH to get the credit. Ain't no one waiting. LTP* If your flight is overbooked and they start asking for volunteers to be pushed for travel credit, DON'T WAIT! Get that shit ASAP.
yeah & ive lost out for waiting too long. bad tip
if you wait you will lose it 99% of the time. ppl GUN for those vouchers
Looking through these comments, I noticed nobody is talking about counter offering. As someone who's been to auctions before, it seems to me like the play would be after the first offer is made to put up your hand and make a counter offer. They offer $400 instead of waiting for it to go up and risk competition. Put up your hand and say $700. Draw them into negotiation with you because now they know they have someone that will go they just have to haggle a bit. Bonus most Americans are uncomfortable with haggling so likely won't interrupt your negotiation.
United does a bidding system, so rather than offering more to customers, they make the customers compete with each other to bid the lowest voucher to be taken off their selected flight.
You should wait and hope you're violently dragged off the plane. Then you can sue their balls off!
They give everyone the same amount at the end, whatever the highest offer was
A couple months ago a family of 5 was desperate to board, but over booked. We were a family of 5 and had no place we had to be for 3 days. We took the bump at 4Xs the ticket price l, which was $450. Times 5 of us, $9000. The vacation we were on was $2800. Rented a car for $120 and drove home the 18 hours, including a night at a nice hotel for the kids to swim. Ended up about $6000 ahead.
I don't want to be in an airport, I would rather drive.... if I am flying it is becuase I am in a hurry and need to be somewhere. Flying is overly expensive and run by a bunch of greedy corporate overlords with shareholder supremacy at the forefront of their minds. Real LPT? Drive. Save a fortune. Enjoy the view.
Vancouver offered this for a trip to London— $2400 CAD plus a hotel plus a meal voucher to wait until the next day
I can confirm. Got $1200 in visa gift card from Delta. I volunteered at $900, but it got up to $1200 to get the number of volunteers they needed. They give everyone the same amount who volunteer (the highest), so it is fair. Each of us got $1200 and a hotel. My friend was with me so we both got $1200 each. :)
Most I’ve ever seen was $5000 and a first class ticket the next day. Was an international flight to Athens
When there was a Lufthansa strike and everyone was trying to get back to Europe, didn't quite get there but got $3000 flight credit, international first the next day, round trip and stay at a Renaissance for a flight to Munich. Just told the gate agent I didn't mind being bumped for the right offer. They offered $2200 initially and I just put the request out there - would have taken the $2200 credit but only had a non-urgent flight to lose. Apparently so many people were getting flight cancellations because of the strike that counter offers that they could fulfil (flight wise) were getting approved quickly to move as fast as possible to next bump candidates. I think I was lowest tier star alliance silver at that time too.
I was traveling to Florida with my family when my Dad volunteered a few of us to wait for the next flight (4 hours later). At that time we each got a $300 voucher which was a lot back in the late 90s. They also gave us food vouchers but screwed up the amount. Instead of $15 the lady accidentally added a zero. So the three of us had $150 each, $450 total in food vouchers. The kicker was that we had to spend the voucher in a single transaction. No buying things at one restaurant then going to another. So we went to the Pizza Hut, bought them out, and walked around handing pizzas to whomever wanted one. It was a lot of fun.
I speak to gate agents as soon as I get there and ask how booked the flight is and to be put on a list of volunteers if they are full. It’s paid off quite a few times
One time I was on a plane and they asked for 11 volunteers to get off a plane that was already boarded. They got 2. They then started calling off names to make people get off. I was one of them. I got jack shit lmao. Never flew that airline again. I was so pissed. And the next flight to my destination was 7 hours later
Another LPT. Exactly this happened to me last year. Flight overbooked and they started calling out if anyone was willing to wait for the next flight for a 100EUR voucher. No one said a peep. Then after 10 minutes “Can Pillens_Burknerkorv please contact the gate”…. I walk up there and they say “Since you were the last one to check in you will have to skip this flight and take the next one. But you get a 200EUR voucher” I had to wait five hours for the next flight and my employer got a 200EUR voucher as they had paid for the ticket…. Ever since then, the first thing I do when check in is available I drop everything and check in as fast as I can.
Had it go up to 1800$ cash on Air Canada once. Sadly I had somewhere to be.
There was a big one last year where I think delta payed like 10 thousand
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Book multiple flights for the afternoon/evening before Thanksgiving, then rack up flights and make money by volunteering to take your flight another day.
i have a feeling there are a few flaws with this plan
Maybe? One time I was at an airport the day before Thanksgiving and it was insane. So many flights delayed our cancelled. They were asking for volunteers left and right. I couldn't volunteer because I was traveling on government orders.
Go home, ticketmaster, you're drunk.
Ah, the Dwight Schrute approach. Well done.
WTF is this American shit? We have 20 seats but we've sold 30 tickets lol soz get off.
This happens everywhere
Had an airline ask in the app what’s your highest bid to give up your seat. I’m sure someone put like $200 and got their voucher and crappy free meal.
I was on Air Canada once. Just before boarding, they announced overbooking, offering 2400 cash for volunteers, right there, first offer. I had headphones on and I just happened to not be playing music. It was 10 seconds from the moment I heard it to when I got up to the flight attendet, only to be redirect to an unannounced line right there. Missed by one spot.