The worst times for bumping are Sunday night, Monday morning, Thursday night and Friday morning. It happens more often on heavily traveled routes like L.A.-to-NYC, but there's not much you can do about that.
Airlines are required to ask for volunteers before resorting to bumping, and to offer those volunteers compensation, so if you're a good bargainer this is your chance to score anything extra airline tickets, first class upgrades, and hotel stays. However, you shouldn't trade in your ticket "until you have a confirmed seat on a later flight and know whether vouchers you're offered have blackouts or reservations restrictions."
Lacking volunteers, agents usually target the last passengers to arrive at the gate. If that happens to you, you'll receive a written statement describing your rights (small comfort as you watch the plane depart) and promising you a seat on another flight. If you can be booked on a flight that will get you to your destination within one hour of your original arrival time, you're entitled to nothing except maybe an apology. But if you'll be one to two hours late, the airline owes you cash: the cost of the fare to your destination, up to $200. If you are delayed by more than two hours, the compensation doubles, to as much as $400.
Allowing hotels to overbook is what gets you cheap rates and special rates for funerals and the like. Without the ability to overbook, all the prices will go up.
]]>Just got back from AZ and the return flight was oversold. They asked for volunteers and since I didn't have to be anywhere at a given time, I gave up my seat for a free roundtrip to the continguous U.S.
]]>@faust1200: Hotels do this all the time...back when I used to work for a major chain of limited service hotels (it shall remain nameless, but "Stay Smart"), we used to overbook the hotel by 2 or 3 rooms all the time. We know, statistically, that a certain number of people on a typical night would somehow not show up and not cancel. In fact, we got bonuses for having a "perfect fill" night which almost always required us to overbook in order to get the extra cash.
]]>Needless to say, I was less than thrilled. The voucher never got used, in fact, I don't think I've flown United since...
]]>Just about any place you can make a reservation will over reserve because they have an expected number of people who won't show up. Some just have a much smaller impact when they are wrong.
]]>Sure I will volunteer to be bumped.... there are 5 kids under the age of 6 in my party, my granny with the bladder problem, Uncle Bob with a great case of the farts, and Aunt Suzie that reaks of salad dressing and Jim Beam.
Please, Please, PLEASE bump me.
]]>I haven't had to fly anywhere recently but in the past I would always volunteer to get bumped and collect the payoff (cash and tickets). I was not a business traveler so it didn't matter what time or day I arrived at my destination.
]]>Want to stay on the plane, check your wheelchair with your luggage.
]]>I got bumped by Delta once, even though we arrived at the airport an hour early for a 7 am flight. They put us on a USAirways flight instead, leaving 10 minutes earlier, going to the same location, and upgraded us to first class. Nice deal, right? Except the Delta employee didn't check us into the original flight, so they cancelled our return tickets. It was a nightmare trying to get back, especially since they kept blaming us for "missing" or original fligt. Did I mention it was my honeymoon? I will never agree to be bumped EVER again.
]]>But then:
"If you really want to make that wedding, arrive at the airport at least an hour early, check your bags promptly, and make sure your spot on the plane is earmarked. 'If you have a seat assignment, there's a 99.9% chance you're going,' says Tom Parsons of the membership travel site Bestfares.com."
This seems to imply that getting a seat assigment changes your chance of getting bumped from 1-in-10,000 to 1-in-1,000, a tenfold INCREASE.
Sounds like someone doesn't understand numbers...
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