Ever let yourself get bumped?

[Servants of Evan]

When I'm flying on business, I'll offer to be bumped if it's on the way home. If I'm on my way to a meeting, it's obviously a different matter unless I've got a generous cushion. In the past, I've gotten an extra night in San Francisco courtesy of one airline plus a confirmed first-class ticket for the trip back home and a voucher. Another time flying MCO to CLE was overbooked and they flew me First Class on the then new 777 to (gasp) Newark with a hotel, flight home and voucher. Sorry you New Jersey-ites, even for five hours Newark was the pits... Why I couldn't just stay overnight in Orlando was beyond me, but the added miles were nice

Servants of Evan

 

[mousey]

We were flying out of Charlotte a few weekends ago and when I asked if we could be moved closer to the front (we were in row 19) the gate agent asked if we could take a later flight (3 hrs later) and we would get a free roundtrip voucher and a $10 meal voucher. Needless to say, the 3 of us had a nice airport meal and are now looking forward to an unplanned vacation courtesy of our "bump".

 

[adrock1976]

Is it true that you only get something if you volunteer to get bumped? But if you get bumped because the flight is full and NO ONE volunteers then you get nothing?

Under Department of Transportation rules, an involuntarily bumped
traveler who is delayed more than one hour but less than two on a
US domestic flight is entitled to $200 or 100 percent of the one-way
fare, whichever is less (the airline must also honor the original
ticket). For delays longer than two hours, the compensation doubles.
The calculation of delay is according to the time of arrival at the
destination. Airlines can offer you a travel voucher (for a free
US domestic round-trip ticket) in lieu of cash, but must give you the
cash if that's what you want. Airlines like bumped volunteers because
free travel vouchers cost them less than the cash compensation they're
required to offer involuntarily bumped passengers.

 

[MrsNick]

If our flight is full, I usually give our name to the gate agent to volunteer for a bump before they even make an announcement. With just DH and I, it isn't a big deal and we carry a change of clothes and our toiletries in our carryon. The only time they have bumped though on one of our flights was when we couldn't, we had to get on that flight to ensure making our DCL cruise. But, we keep trying.......

Arggh! The only time DH and I were in a position to accept a bump we also had to get on the flight to make the DCL cruise. So close, but yet so far. By the time they were through, not only were they offering $300 vouchers pp, but also upgrading to First Class going to Orlando, and on the return flight. I can't tell you how much it hurt to have pass that up! Next time, we'll fly down the day before so we can take that bump (of course, now that we would be able to bump, they won't need volunteers, or the compensation will stink).

 

[JodyTG]

Under Department of Transportation rules, an involuntarily bumped
traveler who is delayed more than one hour but less than two on a
US domestic flight is entitled to $200 or 100 percent of the one-way
fare, whichever is less (the airline must also honor the original
ticket). For delays longer than two hours, the compensation doubles.
The calculation of delay is according to the time of arrival at the
destination. Airlines can offer you a travel voucher (for a free
US domestic round-trip ticket) in lieu of cash, but must give you the
cash if that's what you want. Airlines like bumped volunteers because
free travel vouchers cost them less than the cash compensation they're
required to offer involuntarily bumped passengers.

Thank you for the information, adrock1976. This is something that I did not know. So, I guess I'll feel a bit better if it does happen.

 

[Rella Bella]

Our first trip to WDW, we flew AirTran... which sometimes overbooks as much as 30%. We were late getting to the airport (long story) and all 3 of us got boarding passes for the first leg, but they only had two for the Atl- Orlando leg.

When we got to Atl there were already 8 people without boarding passes. They offered two RT flights (no $ limit)to anyone who would bump... no takers except one really nice man who wanted my DS to get to Disney (he was 6 and SOOO excited)... of course when he did they wouldn't let DS take the seat because his name wasn't 1st on the list.
SO, they told us if we bumped... (since we couldn't go with out him) we would each get the 2 RT tickets, plus they would put us up for the night, give us food vouchers and get us to Orlando by 10 AM the next day. (This was pretty late in the evening.) The option was getting forced off and getting just a refund and having to find our own flight to Orlando... in December.

LSS... we took the bump and got AP's!!! We were able to go back to Disney twice that year and just pay for our room & food!! It was a good year!!

 

[dvc guy]

We took a bump MCO/JFK on SONG in Jan 03. The plane was full and they came on the flight looking for people, they started at 150, then 200 no takers. DW got up from the seat and negotated for 250 plus food money. The next flight was 2 hours later and by the time our original flight left the gate, I think we got in 30 minutes after and the luggage was already there.

Word of caution, ask for vouchers that are in dollars and can be used on any tickets . They like to give out "free tickets" but they are capacity controlled and not good on a lot of flights

 

[MOMTOMOOTOO]

Many years ago, some friends and I were headed to Tucson. We had a change of planes in Houston and took a bump for 300.00 and the next flight out. They told us where to go, what gate etc and when we got there the plane had left. We complained and they gave us another 300.00 plus food voucehers and uprade to 1st class on a later flight. Well worth a few hours. All of us then used 1/2 for a flight to Accapulco on which we got bumped again for $250. and 1/2 for vegas, and yet another bump. So our initial ticket to Tucson yielded about 5 r/t in total.

These days traveling mostly with my kids, I wouldn't take a bump unless a gurantee of the next flight.

 

[alexandmaddie]

We were just bumped last Sat. night. We were flying home MCO to Minneapolis after our cruise. Our flight was delayed by 1 1/2 hours so DH said let's volunteer to be bumped. They ended up needing our seats. We got a $300 voucher for each of us, a room at the MCO Hyatt and 2 meal vouchers (one was $7 x 5, the other was for $13 x 5). The other nice thing was that we were confirmed on the same exact flight the next day and all 5 of us got to fly home first class. The only bummer is that the vouchers have to be used within a year, but that's okay.

The other time we were bumped was in March of 2001. Northwest called us about a month before we left, and asked if we would take a later flight (only 2 hours later). If we changed our flight they offered us 6 round trip tickets. We did take the offer and used the tickets in Dec of 2001.

 

[rsschneck]

Our last bump was May 2005. I called Delta and asked about the vouchers. The vouchers have to be USED/REDEEMED within a year but the actual flight can occur after the one year. So, it makes the vouchers good for like 22 months.