Getting bumped...What's it worth to you?

[poohbear2]

I am wondering what a fair deal would be nowadays if you were to get bumped from your flight. What would make it worth your while?

 

[DebbieB]

I've seen them ask for volunteers on USAir. Usually it's a free round trip ticket anywhere (continental US?) and getting placed on the next flight (sometimes first class). For me, it would depend when that next flight is. Last December, it was only 3 hours later, I thought about it but 2 women ran up and volunteered. In February from MCO, I was on the 5:00pm flight, the next available flight was the next morning, but they gave free hotel and free meal. I had to go to work the next morning, so that was out.

One sticking point - that free roundtrip ticket is restricted as to availablility like FF tickets. You might have a hard time finding good flights to use it on.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

One sticking point - that free roundtrip ticket is restricted as to availablility like FF tickets. You might have a hard time finding good flights to use it on.

That "restriction" is for USAir, right? I have never encountered a problem with Delta or SWA or American.

 

[SuzyQue]

For our 1:40 flight on NWA, they were offering a $300 voucher or a round trip ticket to wait and leave on the 9:00pm flight. I wanted to bump but the rest of the family wouldn't go for it. ~~

 

[DMRick]

We were offered $1,000 a ticket each (three of us) to take a bump on our way home from France. My hubby and son were so wishy washy, that they took too long to decide and another person grabbed it. Couldn't figure out why they offered it..since we flew with 8 empty seats. There was an air strike just about to start, and we were a little afraid we wouldn't get home.

We took $200 each for a bump from Cancun to NY. They fed us and put us up overnight, and then flew us within 2 hours of home, and bused us the rest of the way.

I'm hoping for one on the 16th from Florida, since it is some area's spring break.

 

[bunnyfoo]

Hmm... $300 could pay for another set of plane tickets to WDW I know a friend of mine was bumped from a San Francisco to Toronto flight and given $300 and a free hotel nights stay. For me, it would depend on how much time I had on the way back. I definetely wouldn't want to get bumped on the way to Disney!

 

[seashoreCM]

I often volunteer, but we have to be careful about volunteering on the way to WDW. Your rental car reservation might be cancelled, or you have to pay for the first night at the resort you missed.

Got a $350. voucher plus free hotel night for volunteering on the way back (to Boston via Delta) one time. Voucher could be used towards any future flight at any fare. This was the only time I succeeded in getting the bonus in about 15 volunteering attempts on Delta.

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

 

[OKW91]

I have been bumped several times with USAir and have received round trip tickets good for 1 year! That seemed fair to me, I have always had good luck getting on the next flight within an hour or so. I am willing to give up a few hours of vacation for a pair of free tickets!

 

[safetymom]

When I wanted to go to FL and I had a bump round trip voucher and I had enough frequent flyer miles the bump voucher was the way to go. They don't have a restriction about staying a Saturday night like the award tickets do.

 

[CarolMN]

In my experience, compensation varies between airlines and really depends on how badly they need volunteers. Usually, it starts out at $200. I don't ever fly U S Air, so I don't know how they do it. Sounds different than the airlines I normally fly.

My DH, DD and I were traveling home from Italy (DD's orchestra trip) and waiting at the gate in Detroit for the final leg of our flight back to MSP. Apparently, there were two large groups of high school students booked on that flight (one of them my daughter's) and the flight was way overbooked. The compensation started out at $200 and was raised in several increments until it reached $800. I think the gate agents were getting pretty desperate. They must really hate to do involuntary bumping. Most of the seats were taken by the kids and of course, they were not allowed (by the chaperones) to volunteer. I wanted to volunteer, but my DH didn't. As it turned out, I'm glad we didn't. My cold kicked in big time right after we landed and I was miserable for a few days and very glad to be home.

Anyway, I don't know if they ever got enough volunteers. I would not have wanted to be one of the last to check in that day! My understanding is that those without seat assignments or those who check in late are the ones that get bumped if there aren't enough volunteers.

I prefer the $$ vouchers over the free ticket because the $$ can be applied to any flight/fare for a year. No capacity restrictions. Wish there were more ways to use them electronically, though. Have to go to the airport or an airline's ticket office to use them. That's not always very convenient and you can't always get the good internet fares if you show up in person.

 

[SuzyQue]

I definetely wouldn't want to get bumped on the way to Disney!

That's why my family wouldn't go for it, they just wanted to get there! And of course, on our flight back to Detroit they didn't need anyone to bump, just kept saying it was a "really full flight so use overhead storage accordingly". ~~

 

[tlens]

US Air asked us to give up our seats on the way home last year from Florida. We would leave 1/2 hour later but arrive 1/2 hour earlier. We were given 1st class seats for the 3 of us and free tickets anywhere in the continental US or Canada good for 1 year.

It was a little tough getting decent flights for our free tickets but were able to snag a Saturday-Saturday flight out of Buffalo to leave this May.

I would do it again in a minute!

 

[BigDave]

We have taken numerous bumps with USAir. We are given free flight vouchers (once we 2 vouchers for each of us!!) and we have also flown first class when we took the bump. We love first class (and free is the only way we can "afford" it!). If we wanted to use the tickets during a peak travel time we had to book a year in advance. Using them at the last minute doesn't seem to work, but it is probably our location and the fact that we usually have to fly Saturday to Saturday. I have had good luck giving the tickets to other family members who used them to travel to visit us. FL travel seems to be harder to get then other states (at least as far as I have found). They are just like ff seats so availability is limited. Several times we took vans to different airports, but wouldn't do that again. We were able to go to FL 2 additional times because we took a bump so it was worth it to us.

BigDave

 

[seashoreCM]

>>> two high school orchestra groups ... not allowed to volunteer ... compensation raised to $800.

Since the high school kids were under 18, they could not travel alone on a later flight without an airline supplied chaperone. So the airline had to raise the compensation high enough so elite or premier full fare business travelers who might have checked in a few minutes earlier would not be involuntarily bumped.

 

[Claudia1]

We have voluntarilly been bumped on United, once at $750/ticket. The down side is that they usually give the vouchers in $250 increments and only allow you to use one voucher per ticket purchase. In our case, they wrote them so that we could use them all together so that our whole family could accompany DH on a business trip to Hawaii.

That particular bump was interesting. We were flying out of a small, regional airport to connect in Chicago to WDW. We took the vouchers, then drove 4 hours to Chicago, and was able to make the connecting flight just one hour after our original flight. The United reps were great. They held seats for us on 3 different flights so that we would be able to get to WDW on the same day.

From those vouchers and $500 more from airline flight rescheduling, we were able to turn total of $2,100 cash out in ticket purchases into 2 WDW trips and 1 Hawaii trip for our family of four. Basically, we got 3 WDW trips free. We could have gotten more but the smaller vouchers expired before we had a chance to use them.

My point is this: be sure that you can use the vouchers in the form that they are given. Get them in large anounts.

 

[NotUrsula]

>> Since the high school kids were under 18, they could not travel alone on a later flight without an airline supplied chaperone. <<

Not true. Most "Unaccompanied minor" programs go only up to age 12, a few to 14 or 15. No US-based airline has the required minimum age set to 18.

For overseas flights it can be a bit trickier, depending on the destination. Because of the difficulties with international child custody battles, most US airlines will no longer board anyone under 18 for an overseas flight unaccompanied unless that person can show written permission from both parents (or legal guardians) allowing him/her to leave the US. That does not mean that the airline has to provide a chaperone for the minor, just that they will insist on seeing the proper documents before letting the minor board.