"Volunteers are needed to take a later flight" Would you take the offer? Have you?

Same here. I feel like I only get offers when I absolutely can't move my flight. Last week they were offering $600 to change my flight to the next day, which I would have taken in half a second had I not been traveling for work and needing to tend a meeting.

 

I only even consider the offer if it is flying TO WORK.

I got a GREAT one this summer, flying ORD-EWR on my weekly Monday morning flight after a bad weekend of thunderstorms with a ton of people on standby, they jacked the offer to $2,000 just as I was stepping to the podium. BOOM BABY!!! Snagged that $2K and headed for an extra "work from home" day. Used that for some extra beach trips this winter! Literally every other time I accepted a decent offer (over $500) they ended up not needing anyone.

Now flying to Vegas? That is a NO GO!!!

 

In general, taking the in app offer/emailed offer is a sucker's play relative to what they have historically offered at the gate.

 

For the amount mentioned in the original post, no. Actually I hate to fly and the thought of delaying something I hate to do is too much for me.

If the flight is delayed till the next day and accommodations are part of the pkg. then a distant maybe. If this is in Vegas then the odds increase toward "Oh....ohh kay....."

 

I was once in the Golden Triangle Regional Airport in Columbus, MS. One gate. It's an entire airport, with Pre-Check, regular security, a baggage claim, car rental places...and one gate.

I had been attending an LSU-Mississippi State football game and was flying back to ATL-->DCA. Delta operated one flight per day going in, and one going out, and used ATL as a hub to get people wherever else they needed to go after that.

After leaving Starkville and arriving at the airport, I went through security and was waiting by the gate for a Flight that was leaving in an hour. In comes a TON of people I knew from DC who worked for a Mississippi senator and had returned to that region for constituent outreach purposes (not going further than that so this post won't get the political ban). They shouted my name, handshakes and hugs were exchanged, good times were had, all while waiting by the lone, solitary gate. Gate 1...they even bothered to label it.

The gate agent took up the little microphone thing, even though we were all five feet away from her, and stated that the flight was overbooked. She needed five volunteers to take a shuttle all the way to Jackson (165 miles), fly to ATL on a later flight, and she would make arrangements in advance to connect us to our final destinations. She offered a $250 voucher. No one stepped forward. My buddy Harry taps me on the arm. He goes, "They send me down here once a month. Always the same routine. Always five people, and always $250. But it goes up. And I've learned exactly where to step up and take it."

Sure enough, the same lady takes the mic and offers $500. A few minutes after that it's $750. I start looking at Harry. Serious money, man. We could do a lot with that. Nope. He shakes his head sternly. We're not doin' it. Ok, I shrug.

A few minutes later, it's up to a grand. Harry. NOPE. Ok Harry, you know best. Then $1250. I'm seriously freaking out like HARRY WE GOTTA TAKE THIS. But he won't budge.

Then it's $1500. I turn to Harry, and he's gone. Already walked up to the gate agent, yelling, "ROUND 'EM UP WE GOT FIVE OF 'EM HEADIN' TO DC!" He's directing us on what to do better than the gate agent. Get out your drivers license, get out your boarding pass, she'll hand you new documentation, you can use it online with the code on your voucher, all this other stuff.

Gate agent sighs. Nothing left for her to say except, "Sign here". She then goes to tell us about the shuttle, and Harry's all like, "OH IS IT EDDIE?" Gate agent is like, "Um, sir, I couldn't possibly know who the shuttle driver is going to be, but he'll be here in 30 minutes."

We go outside, continue catching up about the weekend, and a Chevy Suburban pulls up. Driver gets out. "EDDIE!" "HEY HARRY!" Giant bro hug. Rest of us just look at each other like, "Well, I guess they got their routine." Put our stuff in the back, Eddie wants to know all about all of us for two and a half hours, and we pull up to the Jackson airport. Go in, walk up to the Delta desk, and Harry starts telling the agent the situation, agent makes sure we have everything we need, we get through security, grab a bite to eat, and fly to Atlanta. Harry knows just which gate it's gonna be, and we catch a flight that hits DCA around 10 pm.

Harry and I lived very close to each other at the time, so we shared an Uber home from the airport. In the car, I said, "Harry, thanks for everything, I really appreciate your help. But I gotta ask you...how many times have you DONE this whole thing?!?"

Turns out, he always has about EIGHT OR NINE OF THESE FIFTEEN HUNDRED DOLLAR VOUCHERS AT A GIVEN TIME. They last for a year, so he was always conscious of expiration dates.

This man has seen half the damn world on those vouchers. You name some far flung place, and he's flown business class to scope it out. Many countries, multiple continents...a very well traveled man. I myself used my voucher for like four separate $400ish flights.

And it's all because of a li'l ol' one gate airport in Columbus, MS.

 

for $250? Nope. Not a chance. The offers get much better. It's like an auction. I had a flight to New Orleans start at $250 and go up to $1250 WITH hotel and meal vouchers thrown in. I was sad that I couldn't grab it but my significant other at the time was flying from Phoenix to meet me there and would not have been able to check into our comped room at Harrah's without me. Atleast I presumed that. Otherwise I absolutely would have jumped on that.

Had it happen again in Reno. Offering an AMEX Visa. Bidding started at $250 and as I was getting up to grab it at $1250 someone beat me to the counter. I should have started walking over at $1000. At that point I had been in Reno/Tahoe for 5 days and was ready to come home. It was also a losing adventure. And there's no way I would have not gambled in Reno for another day. In hindsight, I may have SAVED money by not taking the voucher.

So in summary, $250 is peanuts!!! Hold out for $1000!!!

 

@bdautch haha, that's a great story! I'm sorry though that you had to spend any time in Starkville! I spent a month there one weekend....bad memories.

I've never gotten an offer like that going to Vegas and I'm not sure that I'd take it. Like others have said I'd certainly not do it for $250 and no way I'm letting my luggage hang out at the airport without me.

Going home from Vegas is another story! On one occasion my wife and I seriously considered it but they found volunteers before we could. On several other occasions we REALLY wanted to take an offer because it would have given us another day in Vegas but we couldn't either because we had commitments at home or were flying with the dog. All of those offers were sweeter than $250 though.

 

Ever since the Dr Dao incident airlines will do just about anything to IDB someone. Delta will go up to 10k for example to get someone to volunteer and denied boarding to only 9 people in all of 2019.

 

If there is one piece of advice I can give everyone is to NEVER accept the initial offer. The airlines should go up to at least $400, and often times, they will go much higher than that. In that past, I have taken the offer at $400, and that was because I arrived on the same day, just a bit later.

 

I got the question by the kiosk while checking in for my IAH - PDX flight one morning. My wife, 2 year old son and myself. I don't recall the specifics, but the kiosk asked for my price for being bumped. I put as many zeroes in as the machine would let me ($10,000), and submitted it. The kiosk replied back that the most they could offer was $2500 per person, and that they would let me know at the gate. Apparently there was a lower offer, as we weren't the ones who got bumped.

But I would accept any offer over $1000 per ticket that also came with first class on whatever flight we were re-booked on, assuming it arrives same day.

 

Keep in mind people no show, misconnect, etc. It's very possible that no one was needed. It's why they wait until the gate to process everything.

 

If I was on Southwest flight, I doubt I would take any offer less than $500 even for a few hours delay. The reason is that unlike other airlines, there is no reserved seating on Southwest. Therefore, if you are a "volunteer" they will have you not board, then only at the end will you know if you are actually to board. At that point the only seat will be a middle seat between two large people with no carry on luggage space. At other airlines, at least you can get your original seat without a hassle if you actually need to board (albeit not much luggage space left).

BTW, I believe that Southwest now has a policy for not deliberately overbooking, but things happen. By way of example, on at least two occasions the temperature was too hot in Phoenix and Chicago for the planes to take off with a normal payload and they had to fly with less than full seating and so volunteers were sought.

 

I would not do it for $250.
However, I have scored a first class seat on two occasions by telling the gate agent (when I arrived & saw a packed waiting area) that I would be willing to take a bump in exchange for a first class seat on the next flight, so long as I didn't end up in a middle seat on my scheduled flight as a result. (My assigned seat was a window both times).
Why would I do such a thing?
Because on those two occasions, the flight wasn't sold-out, but the only remaining non-middle seats were in First! (At least, that's what they told me.)
Didn't cost the airline a penny & I'm in First on my original, scheduled flight for no additional expense. A win-win!
Of course, the only risk there is if the flight does end up being over-sold... then you miss out on the voucher... but hey - you're still in First on the next flight.

 

I've taken a bump at the gate a few times. I typically book a flight with enough wiggle room so I can accept a bump coming and going, but it has to be close enough to 2X what I paid for my flight ($500-600 gets me in the ballpark.)

Lately, American has asked me at check in and the computer gives 4 options up to $650. I volunteer for the amount just lower than this, $550, but assume someone else will go the cheaper route.

 

This reminded me of a story from about 10 years ago. My now wife and I had only been dating a few months and I invited her on a Vegas trip (I usually went solo or met up with my parents since they go so often). I used miles since I had a ton built up and we were supposed to fly SEA-SFO-LAX-LAS. SFO-LAX was oversold so they gave us $400 each and put us in first direct to Vegas. She was hooked after that. Good times.

 

Wow. Was this recently? I used to see this kind of overbooking a lot more in the 1990s, but it seems like most airlines have improved their capacity management in recent years and can avoid these kinds of situations.

 

I still see it somewhat on the legacy carriers. Probably 10% ish of the flights I took last year asked for volunteers. I don't remember the last time I heard it on Southwest, though, after their policy change to stop overbooking flights.

 

About 2-3 years ago.

 

America West would oversell PHX-LAS flights by between 20-25 seats.

 

About 15 years ago United greatly overbooked a flight from LAS to HNL. By at least 30 to 40 people. They made offers and finally offered $750 plus a free night on the strip. About 10 of our group agreed, got our $750 voucher and another $25 for meals and stuff since our bags already left for HNL. This was my first time staying at the flaming o so it was great. And to top it off I had a great stay on the crap table. Hot shooters abounded this night, I was on the table for a good 3 hours. My friends wanted to go to dinner and I told them to come back later since we were supposed to go to a show. They came back an hour later and the table was still hot so I told them to go to the show without me. It's not like it was one shooter, 4 - 5 shooters kept going so I had to start back at red chips for each new shooter. Even then I ended up with over $5k (I always start out slow until the shooter starts hitting the numbers). For a red chip player that was awesome. The wins paid for my trip and my next trip after that so it was an awesome bump.

The next day we were at the airport and many of us were hoping we would be bumped again. Unfortunately the plane wasn't filled so we had to get on the plane, ha ha.


Another time I was at the airport. They again overbooked so the gate agent kept offering money for people to take the voluntary bump. I waited as the amount kept going up but finally at about $700 a bunch of guys took the bump so I was out of luck for that one.


IMHO, don't take the $250 for the bump, go to the airport and wait to see if they will raise their price for the bump. I probably wouldn't do it unless it was at least over $500 but that's me.