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Flights delays and vouchers and being bumped
Posted on 11/14/18 at 5:50 pm
Posted on 11/14/18 at 5:50 pm
Flight out of lft delayed and delayed and finally Delta sent a recovery plane for us. We’re all rebooked.
Meanwhile a different delta flight has taken off and left two people bumped. Those two people got on our flight AND $800 vouchers. We got, which I’m thankful for, rebooked and pizza.
How do you get bumped — not by choice but because you booked economy, get rebooked and get a voucher??
Just curious. Just glad we’ll get to our destination.
Meanwhile a different delta flight has taken off and left two people bumped. Those two people got on our flight AND $800 vouchers. We got, which I’m thankful for, rebooked and pizza.
How do you get bumped — not by choice but because you booked economy, get rebooked and get a voucher??
Just curious. Just glad we’ll get to our destination.
3
Posted on 11/14/18 at 7:13 pm to tiger91
quote:
How do you get bumped?
Book flights that are commonly oversold like heavy business traveler times or places like new orleans for new years or mardi gras. Delta does it pretty often down south since they have so many flights through atlanta that it is easy to get rebooked
Posted on 11/14/18 at 7:22 pm to tiger91
Had the opportunity to do this on a key west flight that arrived a few hours later from Miami.. but I had checked a bag and was worried the bag would be on the early flight or lost. And there was a $600 voucher added to it.
Hate myself for not doing this
Hate myself for not doing this
Posted on 11/14/18 at 9:34 pm to tiger91
I've collected somewhere around $7,000 in bump vouchers in the last 8 or so years.
You get bumped when you volunteer to take a later flight. They need the space because they oversell most flights because their algorithms say there will be no-shows. When they are actually oversold they'll do everything they can to get volunteers via future travel vouchers.
The entire "voucher game" changed after that Dr. got dragged off the United flight. Before that, most airlines would stop at $600 per person. Now they'll go significantly higher. In the last two years I've received a $1,200 voucher and a $1,500 voucher. The $1,200 voucher was just a normal travel day but as Cuse said, with high number of business travelers. I also believe they had a minor equipment swap (different version of a 757 that had 3 less seats). They needed 5 volunteers and I agreed to $800, but they couldn't get the 5th volunteer until $1200 so all of us got them. The $1,500 voucher was ahead of one of the FL hurricanes and I was down there on business. I took the bump and they paid for a cab to an alternate airport. In that case, they only needed one and the agent offered $1,500 to start.
For any flight that I have with flexibility, I'll go up to the gate agent and ask if it's oversold. If it is, I'll tell them I'm willing to volunteer. Typically at that point they'll tell me what the initial voucher amount would be and what my alternate flight options would be.
I will say they've decreased drastically as airlines have gotten better about knowing which flights will oversell and also preemptively avoiding oversells by offering passengers better flight options for free.
You get bumped when you volunteer to take a later flight. They need the space because they oversell most flights because their algorithms say there will be no-shows. When they are actually oversold they'll do everything they can to get volunteers via future travel vouchers.
The entire "voucher game" changed after that Dr. got dragged off the United flight. Before that, most airlines would stop at $600 per person. Now they'll go significantly higher. In the last two years I've received a $1,200 voucher and a $1,500 voucher. The $1,200 voucher was just a normal travel day but as Cuse said, with high number of business travelers. I also believe they had a minor equipment swap (different version of a 757 that had 3 less seats). They needed 5 volunteers and I agreed to $800, but they couldn't get the 5th volunteer until $1200 so all of us got them. The $1,500 voucher was ahead of one of the FL hurricanes and I was down there on business. I took the bump and they paid for a cab to an alternate airport. In that case, they only needed one and the agent offered $1,500 to start.
For any flight that I have with flexibility, I'll go up to the gate agent and ask if it's oversold. If it is, I'll tell them I'm willing to volunteer. Typically at that point they'll tell me what the initial voucher amount would be and what my alternate flight options would be.
I will say they've decreased drastically as airlines have gotten better about knowing which flights will oversell and also preemptively avoiding oversells by offering passengers better flight options for free.
Posted on 11/15/18 at 1:26 am to Golfer
I guess I’m wondering though how their being bumped by 90 minutes onto our rescue flight warranted $800 when we sat there for 5+ hours and got pizza.
Posted on 11/15/18 at 8:36 am to tiger91
quote:Simple answer: The airlines needed them to give up their seat and no one would take less than $800.
I guess I’m wondering though how their being bumped by 90 minutes onto our rescue flight warranted $800 when we sat there for 5+ hours and got pizza.
The ticket is a contract to transport you to the destination for which you purchased your ticket. When the airline fails to provide the service as stated, they compensate you for the inconvenience. In your case, they were able to complete the contract by sending a new aircraft at additional expense. To apologize they provided food and beverages at their expense and I assume some other kind of compensation like miles, dollars off vouchers, etc. That's customer service. You can reach out to the airline and explain that you feel the compensation received wasn't enough and probably receive additional compensation for the inconvenience.
The $800 voucher given to the other passengers isn't customer service. It's a bribe because the passenger has something the airline wants: the seat. Also understand that the $800 voucher does not represent a $800 value to the airline. The vast majority of vouchers are never used, so the only cost the airline is out of is the cost of the paper it's printed out on and that's if the voucher is printed and not emailed. It's been about 10 years and the product was a little different, but I attended a meeting with airline executives about seat miles and passenger compensation. The actual cost of a "free ticket" voucher at the time was around $5. I doubt it has grown that much since what kept that cost low was the lack of people using the voucher.
In reality the airline probably spent more "real world" money on you than the passenger that was bumped. In that case, it's more a question of the perception between the two. $800 seems like the airline is spending more when in reality, they're not.
As an aside, I used to work an airline ticket counter back in the late 90's/early 00's. I once had a handful of college-age girls get off the aircraft and walk straight to the ticket counter. This was in early January and they had received $700 vouchers to volunteer and take a flight the next day. They booked flights for Spring break as soon as they landed and paid for them with the vouchers. As college kids, they were pretty ecstatic and smartly got actual compensation for their troubles. They even got back a voucher for the residual value.
This post was edited on 11/15/18 at 8:50 am
Posted on 11/15/18 at 8:39 am to tiger91
quote:
I guess I’m wondering though how their being bumped by 90 minutes onto our rescue flight warranted $800 when we sat there for 5+ hours and got pizza.
Really just seems like you're frustrated because it's not "fair," but that's life in an airport. Them getting a voucher on one flight, because its been overbooked, has nothing to do with you being delayed.
Posted on 11/15/18 at 9:41 am to MLU
quote:
To apologize they provided food and beverages at their expense and I assume some other kind of compensation like miles, dollars off vouchers, etc.
No pizza was it. I will say I could have easily gone and bought food and now that I’ve slept after getting in at 1am when we were to be here st 6pm last night I’m more rational.
The counter crew was extremely nice and helpful and obviously it wasn’t their fault and obviously I didn’t want to be on an unsafe plane.
Now to the poster who called me likely frustrated yes I was and I admit it now that I can be rational.
And I keep saying vouchers but they were offering gift cards —- Amazon, target, delta and idk where else. .
Posted on 11/15/18 at 11:37 am to tiger91
quote:
And I keep saying vouchers but they were offering gift cards —- Amazon, target, delta and idk where else. .
That's new. It was done because people didn't always find the value in the travel dollars and it's the same "cost" to the airline.
Posted on 11/15/18 at 11:57 am to Golfer
I've only been offered to volunteer to get bumped for a voucher once in my life and I loved the hell out of it, I wish it happened for more of my flights. It was a few years ago I was going to boston for a trip with 2 friends of mine but I was gonna get there like half a day earlier than them, so I hadn't planned on doing much up there before them anyway. Ended up getting like $800 and just ended up chilling at the bar drinking for a few extra hours. It was glorious.
On the other hand, there was another time about a year ago where I was flying somewhere and my wife who IS ALWAYS RUNNING BEHIND made us get to the gate much later htan I had wanted. Heard from someone sitting next to us they were offering up to $1,200 to take a flight 2 hours later. Lemme tell you she's still hearing about that one.
On the other hand, there was another time about a year ago where I was flying somewhere and my wife who IS ALWAYS RUNNING BEHIND made us get to the gate much later htan I had wanted. Heard from someone sitting next to us they were offering up to $1,200 to take a flight 2 hours later. Lemme tell you she's still hearing about that one.
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