Overbooked flights.

I used to fly a lot for my work doing last minute service calls. On the way back from service visits I would take advantage of these flight bump vouchers whenever I could. My best "Voucher Rake" was on a flight from Chicago to Denver (going home) the day before Thanksgiving. My flight was first thing in the morning at 6AM and they needed a bump for $500. I took it and they booked me on the next flight at 10AM. The 10AM flight was overbooked as well and they needed a bump again for $500 so I took it again. They booked me on the next flight at 3PM and that one was also overbooked and they needed a bump for $750, I took that too. They booked me on the last flight of the day at 9PM. What do you know, overbooked again and bump needed for $1000 for a guaranteed seat the next morning. They also comped Hotel and Dinner that night for the over night stay. The next morning I got on the flight with an extra $2750 in flight vouchers in my pocket.

I got on the plane. Dont know who was bumped, but they were still pleading when I went down the jetway.

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Originally Posted by CHA-LEE

I used to fly a lot for my work doing last minute service calls. On the way back from service visits I would take advantage of these flight bump vouchers whenever I could. My best "Voucher Rake" was on a flight from Chicago to Denver (going home) the day before Thanksgiving. My flight was first thing in the morning at 6AM and they needed a bump for $500. I took it and they booked me on the next flight at 10AM. The 10AM flight was overbooked as well and they needed a bump again for $500 so I took it again. They booked me on the next flight at 3PM and that one was also overbooked and they needed a bump for $750, I took that too. They booked me on the last flight of the day at 9PM. What do you know, overbooked again and bump needed for $1000 for a guaranteed seat the next morning. They also comped Hotel and Dinner that night for the over night stay. The next morning I got on the flight with an extra $2750 in flight vouchers in my pocket.

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How did you spend them? Don't they restrict you to using $50-$75 per segment per ticket on booked travel? Time limited as well?

Just repeating what I've heard, never actually took one myself, always HAD to be somewhere when the opportunity arose.

Wow, that's better than anything I've gotten. I think my best bump was SBA-LAX, $800 and I got the next flight down, about 90 mins later, still got home that night.

I was working on a project in Palm Springs some years back and I would fly through either LAX or Ontario. I would fly every other week or so in the fall for a coupe months then the spring for a couple months and an occasional week in the summer. The flights between LA and Palm Springs were always over sold for the early morning flights. I would get in to LA between 8 and 9 AM and like clockwork they would be looking for people to bump to the next available flight which was usually about 45 minutes later. I pretty much always took it and I flew on a lot of vacations for free during that 2 year period.

I also used to fly a lot between Denver and Minneapolis which is a busy route for all of the airlines out of Denver. I run in to over bookings around the holidays on this route all the time. I haven't done it for the last couple years but I used to plan my travel around this as well and take the next flight out along with a voucher for future travel.

Take advantage of it if you can be flexible with your time/travel.

I went for the deal once, $500 and the next flight. They misspoke, they meant to say the next available flight that had seats open which in my case was the last flight out that night. Went from a 10 AM flight to a 9:30 PM flight. I signed up for standby on every flight before that and never made it. I will probably not ever do that again. The voucher expired after 6 months so never got to use that. Jet Blue.

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Originally Posted by wctriumph

I went for the deal once, $500 and the next flight. They misspoke, they meant to say the next available flight that had seats open which in my case was the last flight out that night. Went from a 10 AM flight to a 9:30 PM flight. I signed up for standby on every flight before that and never made it. I will probably not ever do that again. The voucher expired after 6 months so never got to use that. Jet Blue.

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Yeah, you need to get the details from the gate agent. Each time I have done this I have made sure that I knew when the next flight was and that I had a seating assignment before taking the deal.

One time I was flying back from the Cayman Islands (another work trip) on XMas Eve day and the flight from Miami to Denver was overbooked and I didn't have a seat assignment. I was sure I would be stuck in Miami for XMas as the airport was packed. They were asking for people to give up seats and offering some pretty good vouchers. As they were boarding the plane they called my name and I went up to the counter and they had a seat for me.. Ended up being first row 1st class, I won the Lotto on that one!

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Originally Posted by brutal

How did you spend them? Don't they restrict you to using $50-$75 per segment per ticket on booked travel? Time limited as well?

Just repeating what I've heard, never actually took one myself, always HAD to be somewhere when the opportunity arose.

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These were United Airlines vouchers and I spent them on travel to several competition events with my family. They did have a 1 year expiration but I used them all up before they expired. They didn't have any spending restrictions other than the voucher not covering the taxes of the new flights. I think I milked 5 - 6 trips out of those vouchers while only paying taxes on the fairs. Granted this all happened about 10 years ago so who knows what the policies are today as that stuff seems to change quite often.

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Originally Posted by vossman

I’d be all over that.

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Yup, $1200 gift cards to target and such. Wasn’t worth it missing one day to see my family.