Oversold flights and no seat assignments...

[Mop]

Hi, one of my flights got cancelled, so I've now been put on another flight. The problem is that it's around Christmas and it will probably be overbooked. Now, I don't mind taking a voluntary bump...but what I'm wondering is, when they ask for volunteers, can I give up my "seat" when I don't have a seat assignment? Also, if I really wanted to make the flight and no one volunteered to give up seats would I be stuck with an involuntary bump because I didn't have a seat assignment?

[CarolMN]

The airlines always reserve some number of seats for assignment at the airport on the day of departure. The fact that you don't have a seat assignment right now may or may not mean the fliight is overbooked. If you do NOT want to get bumped, get to the airport early. The people who end up bumped involuntarily are those who arrive last. Sometimes those people even had seat assignments (but they didn't check in within the required time period - usually 30 minutes or more before scheduled departure).

If you do want to get bumped (volunteer), you should also plan to arrive at the airport very early. Let the agent know that if volunteers are required, you are interested. He/She will put your name on the list.

So whatever you decide to do, the advice is to get there EARLY! Good Luck!

[seashoreCM]

This is a generalization.

Normally the person who volunteers first has the best chance of being voluntarily bumped. But the gate agent will modify the order of volunteers if some of them are together and insist on being all bumped or all not bumped.

Normally the people who check in last are the first to be involuntarily bumped but the airline may also take into account how much people paid for their tickets, bumping the lowest cost ticket holders first.

Every airline has its own list of boarding priorities.

More Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

Coming back from Disney on Labor Day I was fourth to volunteer and the first 3 were traveling together. They had to bump exactly three people so I missed out. The agent said I missed out because they needed several seats, I guessed that if they needed any number of seats other than 3 I would have gotten the bump bonus of $500. I am still wondering if, suppose that volunteers 2, 3, and 4 out of six volunteers were traveling together and the airline was short 3 seats, would they bump 1, 5, and 6 instead of 2, 3, and 4?

[RAV]

In September, my family and I volunteered to give up our seats. We were each given $300 for future air travel, an overnight stay at the Hilton in MCO, dinner and breakfast, and first class seats for a flight the following morning. It was a great deal !!!!!!!

[Mop]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I've never taken a bump before, but since we are coming home before I have to go back to work, we figured we'd try it if the flight was oversold. We'll get there early and see how it goes...