A teacher friend of mine was voluntarily bumped on 3 flights on the way home from spring break last year on US domestic flights.

This weekend on her return flight from spring break she again was voluntarily bumped (from a free flight she earned from last year's bumps).

She always makes her flights late on Saturday night during peak holiday weekends so she can get bumped but still make it home to work on Monday.

Another teacher I work with said that the airline she flew dangled 2 and then 3 free flights for anyone willing to get off of the plane on Sunday (Easter) evening.

Maybe it's just me, but I can't recall the last time I heard the call for a Voluntary Bump. (Yes, I can Thanksgiving 2005!)

I used to get them ALL the time on American out of Nashville, but now that I fly out of either Atlanta or Birmingham I haven't gotten any "freebies"

Now that I think about it, the last calls I heard for voluntary bumps were when I was working and always HAD to be back to work the next morning or on my way to an important meeting. Now that I'm retired and could easily delay any flight, I never hear the requests for volunteers.

Thanks for the tip on being first in line, bella33! We are leaving from Amsterdam because that is where I got the most favorable terms. However, we will be ending our trip in London and flying over on VLM that morning from a ticket I bought on SkyEurope. It has us arriving 4 hours before our flight to the states since I wanted to be safe and be sure we would be on time for that flight. Maybe we'll get lucky and be asked to stay for some compensation. Overnight would be great since we won't have seen any of Amsterdam except the airport... :-)

We volunteered coming home from Florida in December and got free tickets. We only had to wait an hour and a half for the next flight and when we got to our home airport, our bags (which had been on the earlier flight) were ready and waiting for us. It was a great deal for us! I often hear them asking for volunteers, if necessary, but then the if necessary never happens.

For those wondering why the airlines do it, it's pretty simple. Because it makes financial sense.

There are two main reason why an airline overbook. First is that because not all passengers show up for their flights for whatever reasons - including missed connections at hub airports. If airlines do not overbook, you'll find empty seats on many flights when the airline can fill them. But when most people show up, they need to look for volunteers.

Second reason is pure financial. Airlines sell tickets at all different prices. In order to fill the planes, they may offer relatively cheap discount fares at various time points. But at the last minute, they only sell full fare. And they will sell them even if the flight was already totally booked. Because even if they have to bump someone off a flight with a voucher or other benefits, they can still make more money because of the last-minute full fare ticket they sell.

With flights this full (most airlines record load factor over 80%, except Southwest), you'll see more bumping. Which is often good for everybody.

The DH just got bumped involuntarily off a flight from Kona, HI to SFO. It was last flight of the day to the west coast. He ended up having to fly BACK to Honolulu, then take a red eye to SFO, arriving Easter morning. They gave him a $600 voucher (I hounded him a bit over the phone about arguing for first class upgrade but he was too exhausted to do anything but hop the plane).

For involuntary bumps you have the right to ask for cash compensation instead of a voucher, another reason airlines don't like to involuntarily bump.

On my DL flight out of SLC 3 days ago, the aircraft went mechanical. Our substitute aircraft had 20 less seats for a sold out flight. They were able to get 10 volunteers and had to IDB 10 others.