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Giving up your seat for money



 
 
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  #1  
Old December 2nd, 2008, 04:11 AM
chithanh119 chithanh119 is offline
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First recorded activity by TravelBanter: Nov 2008
Posts: 9
Default Giving up your seat for money

You are standing in the checking in queue and someone from the airline calls out that they need 2/3/4 or whatever number of people to give up their seats. They offer those people a hotel for the night and X amount of money.

I was wondering if anyone has ever accepted this and what did they received for the inconvenience? I've never had the opportunity to accept such an offer, mainly due to time restrictions, but I'm well up for a deal like that on my forthcoming trip
  #2  
Old December 2nd, 2008, 07:28 AM posted to rec.travel.air
LVTravel[_1_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 168
Default Giving up your seat for money



"chithanh119" wrote in message
...

You are standing in the checking in queue and someone from the airline
calls out that they need 2/3/4 or whatever number of people to give up
their seats. They offer those people a hotel for the night and X amount
of money.

I was wondering if anyone has ever accepted this and what did they
received for the inconvenience? I've never had the opportunity to
accept such an offer, mainly due to time restrictions, but I'm well up
for a deal like that on my forthcoming trip




--
chithanh119

'Vacation in vietnam beach resort'
(http://www.waytovietnam.com/resort.asp) | 'Victoria Sapa Tour Package'
(http://www.waytosapa.com/tour_list_V...ackages_6.html) |
'Mekong excursion' (http://www.waytomekong.com)


  #3  
Old December 2nd, 2008, 07:32 AM posted to rec.travel.air
Josh
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Posts: 18
Default Giving up your seat for money

On Tue, 2 Dec 2008 03:11:38 +0000, chithanh119
wrote:


You are standing in the checking in queue and someone from the airline
calls out that they need 2/3/4 or whatever number of people to give up
their seats. They offer those people a hotel for the night and X amount
of money.

I was wondering if anyone has ever accepted this and what did they
received for the inconvenience? I've never had the opportunity to
accept such an offer, mainly due to time restrictions, but I'm well up
for a deal like that on my forthcoming trip


I've done this twice:

1) On Northwest, mid 90s, while travelling on a frequent flyer award
ticket (so free to begin with), I volunteered, got a $400 voucher I
used for the next trip, and was visiting my family so got to spend
another day with them, and fly home the next day...which was when I'd
wanted to fly back originally, but didn't have award availability :-)

2) On United, late 2000, travelling to my soon-to-be in-laws (my
soon-to-be wife was already there), my evening flight from Chicago to
Pittsburgh got replaced by a smaller plane. Volunteered, and in
exchange for $600 (!) in vouchers, airline-provided hotel, arrived
early the next morning (Christmas eve day, which was why everyone was
anxious to get there, but that was fine with me), and they even gave
me a cab fare voucher. My procrastination paid off, as I was able to
use the vouchers for our tickets to honeymoon in Europe, using them to
pay the difference to a fare eligible to use miles to upgrade to
business class (only time, and best flights ever)

Be aware of what exactly they're offering:

1) Cash -- best, but not likely to be offered (although I understand
they have to pay cash to involuntary bumpees)

2) Dollar-amount vouchers (as I had), usable toward any ticket on
that airline. Check the expiration date, as well as any rules on
combining/splitting (the $600 I got was printed as 6 $100 stubs, but I
verified I could use them together, as opposed to some other $25
coupons I'd gotten for something else that only allowed one to be used
at a time)

3) Voucher for a "free roundtrip within the US" or some such. I
personally wouldn't accept this -- they're generally capacity limited
like low level frequenty flyer awards, which are notoriously hard to
use and most likely to expire worthless. I'd rather have a known
$200-$300 toward any good fare I can find than one of these, even if I
end up buying a higher priced ticket.

Having said that, it seems to be rarer these days that they actually
need volunteers (sometimes they'll get names in case), despite the
full flights; better yield predictions, I assume. Or I may be
blanking things out; travelling with kids means we're much less
flexible :-) Still worth a try, of course.

Josh
  #4  
Old December 2nd, 2008, 07:36 AM posted to rec.travel.air
LVTravel[_1_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 168
Default Giving up your seat for money



"chithanh119" wrote in message
...

You are standing in the checking in queue and someone from the airline
calls out that they need 2/3/4 or whatever number of people to give up
their seats. They offer those people a hotel for the night and X amount
of money.

I was wondering if anyone has ever accepted this and what did they
received for the inconvenience? I've never had the opportunity to
accept such an offer, mainly due to time restrictions, but I'm well up
for a deal like that on my forthcoming trip




Many times. Best was an AA trip out of San Juan PR. Got for each of us
$400 (travel voucher), 3 meals, hotel (El Conquistador,) taxi ride and a
full day in San Juan that we wouldn't have had if we didn't accept. Flew
out the same flight the next night. This was for 4 people in my group.

AirTran - free roundtrip plus bump up to business class on the replacement
flight (both legs.)

US Air - $300 in travel plus one leg was upgraded to first class (but it was
only from BWI to Charlotte not the longer trip to Las Vegas.)

Many more but they were just $300 or so but no upgrades.

We (wife and myself) can do it because we always try to set travel so that
we don't have to get there the day we fly or get home the day we leave.

  #5  
Old December 2nd, 2008, 02:33 PM posted to rec.travel.air
Kurt Ullman
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,653
Default Giving up your seat for money

In article ,
Larry in AZ wrote:

Yes, once that I can remember leaving Maui for San Francisco. My wife and I
got a return trip the next afternoon, a night's stay in a 4-star resort
hotel, cab fare to/from the airport, and a meal vouchers for two meals each
that were really worth something.


I had a friend back in the days when SABRE was available through
CompuServe who would look for flights that were really close to full or
had a history of filling up and book those flights for himself and
family. He would then get to the airport and take the bump if offered.
He usually was careful to make sure that there were other flights that
looked light on pax leaving fairly soon after his flight. On a personal
flight, his record was bumped three times before getting out.
  #6  
Old December 2nd, 2008, 04:13 PM posted to rec.travel.air
Richard[_1_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 15
Default Giving up your seat for money

I agreed to be bumped on a People Express flight in return for a free ticket
anywhere they flew. Before I was ready to use it, they went bankrupt and I
got nothing.

"Larry in AZ" wrote in message
.. .
Waiving the right to remain silent, chithanh119 chithanh119.37a7c29
@travelbanter.com said:

You are standing in the checking in queue and someone from the airline
calls out that they need 2/3/4 or whatever number of people to give up
their seats. They offer those people a hotel for the night and X amount
of money.

I was wondering if anyone has ever accepted this and what did they
received for the inconvenience? I've never had the opportunity to
accept such an offer, mainly due to time restrictions, but I'm well up
for a deal like that on my forthcoming trip


Yes, once that I can remember leaving Maui for San Francisco. My wife and
I
got a return trip the next afternoon, a night's stay in a 4-star resort
hotel, cab fare to/from the airport, and a meal vouchers for two meals
each
that were really worth something.

That was back in the late 90's, so things might have changed by now.

--
Larry J. - Remove spamtrap in ALLCAPS to e-mail

"A lack of common sense is now considered a disability,
with all the privileges that this entails."



  #7  
Old December 2nd, 2008, 04:17 PM posted to rec.travel.air
Mythbuster
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 17
Default Giving up your seat for money

"Larry in AZ" wrote in message
.. .

I'm having a problem with the OP's links at the bottom of his post. Links
to travel sites. If he advertises travel sites, he should know about
airline bumping. Looks, to me, like a clever way to get the spam in.


  #8  
Old December 2nd, 2008, 07:09 PM posted to rec.travel.air
[email protected][_1_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 206
Default Giving up your seat for money

On Dec 1, 8:11*pm, chithanh119
wrote:
You are standing in the checking in queue and someone from the airline
calls out that they need 2/3/4 or whatever number of people to give up
their seats. They offer those people a hotel for the night and X amount
of money.

I was wondering if anyone has ever accepted this and what did they
received for the inconvenience? I've never had the opportunity to
accept such an offer, mainly due to time restrictions, but I'm well up
for a deal like that on my forthcoming trip


$250 for giving up a seat on COEx about 15 years ago. Was put on a
UAEx flight that left about 45 minutes later.

$250 for giving up a seat on America Worst. Was then put on a
Southwest flight that left a few hours later. As the airlines did not
an interline agreement the people being bumped were given a check to
pay for their airfare on Southwest. By the way I only paid $139 for
the flight with taxes and fees.

Twice on SkyWest, once for UAEx and once for DLcont I almost got $500
for giving up my seat on flight that was overweight. On the first
flight there were a number misconnects, so they did not need anyone.
On the second flight they once needed two volunteers and so they used
a mother/daughter combo. I however did get 500 or 1000 FF miles on DL
from the nice gate agent.

Also several other times I had the opportunity to give up my seat on
commuter flights with Skywest that were overweight, but for one reason
or another I did not.

i will consider this if I am going home, as figure this just extends
my vacation. Also I would rather miss a day or two of work than a day
or two of my vacation.

M. Graham
  #9  
Old December 3rd, 2008, 08:27 AM posted to rec.travel.air
sharx35
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 803
Default Giving up your seat for money



wrote in message
...
On Dec 1, 8:11 pm, chithanh119
wrote:
You are standing in the checking in queue and someone from the airline
calls out that they need 2/3/4 or whatever number of people to give up
their seats. They offer those people a hotel for the night and X amount
of money.

I was wondering if anyone has ever accepted this and what did they
received for the inconvenience? I've never had the opportunity to
accept such an offer, mainly due to time restrictions, but I'm well up
for a deal like that on my forthcoming trip


$250 for giving up a seat on COEx about 15 years ago. Was put on a
UAEx flight that left about 45 minutes later.

$250 for giving up a seat on America Worst. Was then put on a
Southwest flight that left a few hours later. As the airlines did not
an interline agreement the people being bumped were given a check to
pay for their airfare on Southwest. By the way I only paid $139 for
the flight with taxes and fees.

Twice on SkyWest, once for UAEx and once for DLcont I almost got $500
for giving up my seat on flight that was overweight. On the first
flight there were a number misconnects, so they did not need anyone.
On the second flight they once needed two volunteers and so they used
a mother/daughter combo. I however did get 500 or 1000 FF miles on DL
from the nice gate agent.

Also several other times I had the opportunity to give up my seat on
commuter flights with Skywest that were overweight, but for one reason
or another I did not.

i will consider this if I am going home, as figure this just extends
my vacation. Also I would rather miss a day or two of work than a day
or two of my vacation.

M. Graham


It's also a good excuse: even the grouchiest of bosses has to understand
that if one gets bumped they obviously can't be back to work in time. No
need for boss to know that one VOLUNTEERED to be bumped!!





  #10  
Old December 3rd, 2008, 05:38 PM posted to rec.travel.air
tim.....
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,591
Default Giving up your seat for money


"Sharx35" wrote in message
news:OxqZk.2232$si6.1918@edtnps83...


wrote in message
...
On Dec 1, 8:11 pm, chithanh119
wrote:
You are standing in the checking in queue and someone from the airline
calls out that they need 2/3/4 or whatever number of people to give up
their seats. They offer those people a hotel for the night and X amount
of money.

I was wondering if anyone has ever accepted this and what did they
received for the inconvenience? I've never had the opportunity to
accept such an offer, mainly due to time restrictions, but I'm well up
for a deal like that on my forthcoming trip


$250 for giving up a seat on COEx about 15 years ago. Was put on a
UAEx flight that left about 45 minutes later.

$250 for giving up a seat on America Worst. Was then put on a
Southwest flight that left a few hours later. As the airlines did not
an interline agreement the people being bumped were given a check to
pay for their airfare on Southwest. By the way I only paid $139 for
the flight with taxes and fees.

Twice on SkyWest, once for UAEx and once for DLcont I almost got $500
for giving up my seat on flight that was overweight. On the first
flight there were a number misconnects, so they did not need anyone.
On the second flight they once needed two volunteers and so they used
a mother/daughter combo. I however did get 500 or 1000 FF miles on DL
from the nice gate agent.

Also several other times I had the opportunity to give up my seat on
commuter flights with Skywest that were overweight, but for one reason
or another I did not.

i will consider this if I am going home, as figure this just extends
my vacation. Also I would rather miss a day or two of work than a day
or two of my vacation.

M. Graham


It's also a good excuse: even the grouchiest of bosses has to understand
that if one gets bumped they obviously can't be back to work in time. No
need for boss to know that one VOLUNTEERED to be bumped!!


I thought that the US rule was they you always have to volunteer. They keep
on upping the ante until they get enough people

tim


 




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