Can anyone share experiences about volunteering to be Bumped?

[westjones]

We had the opportunity to give up our seats on the plane coming back from Florida in exchange for free roundtrip tickets (to be used within 12 months). It sounded like a great deal to me! We had never done this before, but all went smoothly so far (we haven't used the vouchers yet to rebook, but they put us up in a hotel, gave us food vouchers and got us on a flight the next day). There seemed to be a lot of requests for volunteers to bump (on our flight going to Florida we couldn't do it because we had to make our cruise-but they asked for volunteers).

Now we are wondering if this is a common opportunity? And is there a trick to it? Like I am wondering if Fridays are more common for bump requests than weekends....does it happen more on early flights than later flights? Etc.? Anyone else do this? There was another family that did this with us and they seemed to be "old pros" at it and gave us some advice (like telling us the $300 voucher is usually better than the round trip ticket--but we took the tickets because the only time we are flying again is next year for spring break and just liked the idea of having a free flight for that trip).

Anyway, I would like to hear what others who fly more frequently know about this? We would love to do it again next year if this happens a lot! It wasn't a hardship at all for us to wait one more night! We rented a car and pool hopped over to SSR for the afternoon (we had just checked out of BCV and we are DVC members, so we could pool up up until midnight that night) and then went to DTD for the evening.

So can you experienced travels share the 'secrets' to getting free flights? BTW, this was on Northwest. Our next flight is on Airtran. Does anyone know if they offer this opportunity also?

Thanks!
DJ

 

[Andrea]

i never had them ask us that. i might doing on the way home ( i would be to excited on the way to whereever i am going) if i was not on a time "budget"

 

[Vivianne]

We only did this once. So we're hardly experienced. However, a long time ago on our trip to Aruba we took AA on the offer for 2 $500 vouchers. We took the next flight which was a few hours later.

We did hold on to those vouchers for a while. I suggest you find out the conditions for the voucher. Turns out they deduct a fee from the voucher every year that passes once you go beyond their deadline. We did go to California using the voucher and paying the difference (small amount) for flight at that time. I wouldn't mind doing this again.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

So can you experienced travels share the 'secrets' to getting free flights? BTW, this was on Northwest. Our next flight is on Airtran. Does anyone know if they offer this opportunity also?

Most airlines overbook flights. AirTran overbooks flights. There have been articles published that JetBlue does not overbook.

Although tourists with heavily discounted tickets are pretty much tied to specific flights, full-fare business travelers are free to change their plans — and they often do so. Also, there may be last minute demand for very expensive full coach fare flights.

The airlines are rather sophisticated at knowing which flights can be overbooked, and by how any seats. Usually, overbooking simply means that flights are fairly full, even though a bunch of ticketed passengers didn't show up.

When more passengers show up at the gate than the capacity of the aircraft, the airline asks for volunteers. A typical offer would be a $300 or $400 travel voucher per passenger and a reserved seat of a later flight on the same airline or on a different airline. Usually, there are eager volunteers who are thrilled to accept the offer. Voluntary bumping hurts nobody. The airlines win because they can sell more high-fare seats. The volunteers win because they'll have free air travel on their next vacation.

There can also be cases of involuntary bumping. That's called denied boarding. It's quite rare. In the case of denied boarding, the unlucky passengers are entitled to real money, not just airline vouchers.

Voluntary bumping can happen on any sold-out flight. In a few, rare cases, an airline may ask for volunteers even when a flight is not sold out — such as due to weight limits on very hot days at high elevation airports.

it's hard to predict which flights will have voluntary bumping. It seems that most flights are at or near capacity these days. Just because a seat map on an airline's website shows that there are no unassigned seats does not mean that the flight is overbooked. Friday evening flights tend to have a very high demand because business travelers are returning home and vacationers are starting their vacations. Keep in mind that the flights with the highest demand are also the least likely to be available at heavily discounted fares.

To increase your chances or getting a travel voucher, check in early at the airport and let the agent at the ticket counter know that you're interested in volunteering — even though the agent has not asked you to volunteer. Then, let the agent at the gate know. Attach some basic conditions, such as a minimum of $300 or a free roundtrip, and that they must match the highest offer. So, if the airline is later offering $400 to volunteers, you would expect $400 too. You'll be at or near the "front of the line" in the computer if volunteers are needed. (But the airline may give priority to their elite frequent flyers.)

The downside of volunteering is that if they might need you, but they don't actually need you, you'll be the last to board the aircraft. By that time, the overhead storage may be completely full. Also, you should retain your original assigned seats, but that doesn't always happen. If you get on the flight, you get no vouchers — even if you lost your original seats and your carry-ons are gate-checked.

 

[BonnieA]

Well I had a not so great experience with volunteering, but we learned valuable lessons that will be of use if we ever get in the situation again. This was on a trip out of Fort Lauderdale a couple weeks ago. Delta had overbooked and was looking for volunteers. They were offering $400 delta dollars. My husband and I had never done this but since we were not in a hurry to get home, we (or rather I) decided to volunteer. I went to the counter to ask for specifics. We would be given vouchers for the Delta dollars, hotel accommodations, ground transportation to hotel and meals. And they would fly us first class on a 7am flight the next morning. Sounded great. We accepted and I asked how to get the transportation to the hotel and back. The agent told us go outside of the luggage pickup and the counter agent there would direct us to transportation. He also told us that the hotel would help us with return transportation for the next morning. The hotel was near Miami International but we were flying out of Fort Lauderdale (local hotels were filled with spring breakers). That was our first problem. The hotel (Wyndham) didn't give a rats behind about us and our transportation problem. If we weren't going to Miami Airport, they didn't care anything about us. Luckily my husband had kept the card from the company that brought us to the hotel the night before so he called them. We wanted to be picked up at 5am for the 7am flight but they couldn't pick us up until 5:30am. The hotel is 30 minutes from the airport. We do get there at 6am so we figure we still have plenty of time. Had to get boarding passes at the counter but here comes the next problem. The agent the day before did not give us flight coupons for our flight. It took a half hour to get that straightened out. It's 30 minutes to our flight and we haven't gone thru security yet (not to mention we haven't had any breakfast or coffee or anything). Of course the security line is backed WAY up. We'll never get thru it on time. But I noticed a sign that said first class entry was on the other side. We rush over there since we did have a first class ticket and got thru security and to the plane with a few minutes to spare. But after that stressful experience we are not sure if it is worth the trouble. If we ever do it again, we will make sure that the flight coupons get printed along with all the other vouchers and - this is the important one - that the hotel is near the airport that we are actually flying out of. And we never did get any breakfast, just coffee, so we used up our meal vouchers at the Cincinnati airport for lunch between flights.

 

[fakereadhed]

My experience: NEVER take a bump when they offer to put you on another airline. EVER no matter what they offer you. After they hand you your vouchers, you are out of luck. You are no longer their customer r/t the flight you were supposed to be on- they tell you to deal with the other airline. As far as the other airline is concerned you are not their customer either. You may be waiting a long time until they find space for you on one of their oversold flights. Yes, you will get home. No guarantee when. I have taken bumps on the same airline with few problems though.

 

[kritter]

My experience: NEVER take a bump when they offer to put you on another airline. EVER no matter what they offer you. After they hand you your vouchers, you are out of luck. You are no longer their customer r/t the flight you were supposed to be on- they tell you to deal with the other airline. As far as the other airline is concerned you are not their customer either. You may be waiting a long time until they find space for you on one of their oversold flights. Yes, you will get home. No guarantee when. I have taken bumps on the same airline with few problems though.

not so true ,.my dh and I got bumped off of dleta and they put us on continetial and then they bumped us and we got over 1,200 in vouchers we flew free for two years....we volunteered the bump on continential...delta booked our seats etc.. with them,,,...

 

[seashoreCM]

My experience: NEVER take a bump when they offer to put you on another airline. EVER no matter what they offer you. After they hand you your vouchers, you are out of luck. You though.

The gate agent should tell you what your replacement flight will be (or tell you you are on your own i.e. standby) when you ask. Then the gate agent (for your original flight) should actually book you on that flight even if it is for a different airline.

A caution: Often the airline offers a "round trip voucher" instead of a dollar value voucher as compensation. Often this round trip voucher is only good for a limited number of seats per flight which may be all gone when you try to book. For this reason experienced travelers often pass up volunteering unless dollar value vouchers are offered.

I once got a voluntary bump on Delta from Orlando to Boston but by an large I have found the opportunities rare.

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

 

[DebbieB]

Be sure to ask about the conditions of the "free ticket". I know someone who took the free tickets but had a hard time using them. They were like frequent flyer tickets, only a small number of seats on each flight could be reserved.

 

[fakereadhed]

not so true ,.my dh and I got bumped off of dleta and they put us on continetial and then they bumped us and we got over 1,200 in vouchers we flew free for two years....we volunteered the bump on continential...delta booked our seats etc.. with them,,,...

Didn't work so well for me when trying to go from another airline to Delta. We had our boarding passes, but they laughed and said we weren't on that flight or any other in the near future, as they were way oversold and asking their passengers to take bumps. Just saying that if it doesn't work out you may be in for a few days of misery. Unless you like sleeping in airports!

 

[kritter]

Didn't work so well for me when trying to go from another airline to Delta. We had our boarding passes, but they laughed and said we weren't on that flight or any other in the near future, as they were way oversold and asking their passengers to take bumps. Just saying that if it doesn't work out you may be in for a few days of misery. Unless you like sleeping in airports!

Interesting....Dh travels for business a ton and has gotten bumped a bunch of times and rerouted on different flights, etc....But he is not the one ultimately paying for the ticket...the company is...so it works to his advantage....

Oh well, I say with Delta the way they are right now we should be lucky enough to score an inexpensive seat with them let alone worrying about a bump!!!!

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

We did this once on TWA. DH and I were coming back from Phoenix I think and TWA was looking for volunteers to stay behind.

We got on a flight later in the day, so just hung around the airport. They also gave us free meal coupons.

Only thing, Pittsburgh isn't a big airline market so when we used the free flights to go on an adults only trip to WDW, we had to fly from Pittsburgh to St. Louis then to MCO. Yea, it was free but 2 long days of traveling.

 

[westjones]

Well I now understand why people were telling us to take the $300 credit instead of the free round trip ticket. We tried to book roundtrip tickets today for next March (2007) and they are saying there are not seats available with these vouchers on those flights! That is a year away. They told me there were no blackout dates, but seats were limited....well limited must be ZERO because I just can't believe that many people have already booked flights for 2007!

It will allow us to use $200 credit instead, but if I had taken the $300 credit THEN I could have book our flights for next March because the $300 would have covered the ticket price. With the $200 credit we still have to pay. Of course, it is still nice to have the $200 credit, it is just they told us we would have free tickets.

NOW the question is do we just wait it out hoping that the flight prices come down to under $200 for the week we want, or do we go ahead and book and pay the extra.

For now we are going to wait (it is a year away before our next Disney Cruise), but we are not so happy about this anymore. Again, $200 off is nice, but it is the fact they told us we could fly free and we were so excited. Now I feel tricked. We should have taken the $300 credit and then we would be all set.

Well, live and learn. To those of you who do this in the future, it does seem like the credit is better than the free ticket since the free tickets can only happen is the moon and stars are aligned just right .

DJ

 

[seashoreCM]

Didn't work so well for me when trying to go from another airline to Delta. We had our boarding passes, but they laughed and said we weren't on that flight or any other in the near future, as they were way oversold and asking their passengers to take bumps. !

If you already have boarding passes for your replacment flight and are bumped from that, you get another round of compensation.

Some travelers take pride in getting bumped three times for the same trip.

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

I have seen Northwest overbook and ask for volunteers more than Delta - I fly both alot. I took a voluntary bump on Northwest in Memphis a few weeks ago. We were put up in the Radisson, given meal vouchers and a free RT coupon (no dollar vouchers offered). The only bad part was that the next flight back to our home airport didnt leave until 3pm the next afternoon.

I always pack a small ziplock of basic toiletries and a clean outfit in my rolling briefcase so I am prepared if I get bumped.

I have taken same day bumps on Delta before where they tried to rebook me on USAir and I refused. Delta accomodated me on another Delta flight when I said No the the USAir flight.

 

[lotsofkids]

This past February we were scheduled to fly N/S from Orlando back to Hartford. Three weeks before we left I received a phone call asking our interest in altering our schedule - no incentive offered. I said no thanks. Two weeks before, received another phone call with an offer of $100 travel voucher (?) if we changed to a 7AM flight. Again, no thanks. At the gate, I got in line for a stroller tag and overheard very upset people without seats assignments. Finally at my turn offered to help (they had not announced for volunteers etc - I overheard they were overbooked 20 seats). They offered $400 cash per ticket - and a seat 2 hours later with a change in Atlanta. There were 7 of us - $2800! Also I received lunch vouchers for Orlando airport and the kids and I sat in First class from Atlanta to Hartford. Yesterday I used some of the $ to buy our tickets for next February.

 

[PURTYPAT1]

Hi westjones,

DD11 & I have been traveling at least 2- 3 times a year. For the last 5 years, we having been getting bumped at least once a year. It's an adventure for us.

Worst experience was with Northwest. The tickets we received were not face value, & we had the same problems that you are experiencing. I tried booking one year in advance, at a non peak time, & couldn't get a flight. With my Northwest tickets, the only way I could use them, was, we had to leave on a Wednesday, & return on a Monday. Never on a Weekend. I will never except a ticket with restrictions again.

We usually fly on the on the busiest day of the year. Every year President's Week. (I always get bumped either coming or going) Jersey week bumped usually coming home.

Last November Delta gave us 300.00 each in Delta money, overnight stay (fun) dinner & flight first thing the next am. We stayed in the Marriott MCO with a shuttle to & from the airport.

Last February 2006 DD & I got $600.00 air money each with AA going down flew first going down. Coming home, we flew Spirit, which they were looking for volunteers. They were giving, free tickets, & overnight stay. DD & I smiled & said no thanks.

This year we are Flying home the Sunday after Thanksgiving there will be 5 of us. I am in no rush to get home, told DH, that if they are looking for volunteers, DD & myself will give up our seats. We are flexible, & never in a hurry, and use, carry on suitcases.

The secret, is not to be in a hurry, have flexible plans & know what you are getting before you give up your seat.

Ask for:
Unrestricted tickets
Guaranteed seats on another flight
If they put you up overnight, ask for transportation to & from airport, and dinner vouchers.

Let us know how you make out with your tickets.

Patricia

 

[shelby2001]

We had an involuntary bump in February in Salt Lake City Utah and they could not get us home for 3 days. We ended up with $1600 in cash and $2,000 in vouchers, they paid for all the hotels (which were suites) food, however we did not have any luggage for 3 days. The only problem that I have is we have no blackout days but after booking over the phone I have 24 hours to get to an airport to turn the vouchers in order to keep the reservation. This is going to be a real pain since I am 1 hour from the nearest airport.

 

[fakereadhed]

We had an involuntary bump in February in Salt Lake City Utah and they could not get us home for 3 days.

That's where I got stuck too.

 

[PURTYPAT1]

Wow shelby2001 & Fakereadhed,

Was this President's week, that this happend? Which airline?

Shelby2001, when I reedem my tickets, I go to the airport with DH. We leave, late at night & emergency park curb side at arrivals or international arrivals. My DH stays in the car while I run in. I have all the info ready, for the agent, & I am in & out with minutes. Hope this helps.

Patricia