Playing the "free airline voucher" game
 

A few years ago, while waiting for a flight to Philadelphia on a Friday afternoon, I answered the airline's request to give up my seat to another passenger, in return for a free trip voucher. I was put on the next flight to Philly an hour later, and two months later, I got to fly to Washington DC for free. On the DC flight, a talked briefly to a couple who had recently been to Hawaii, courtesy of 2 free airline vouchers, obtained in the same manner.

My question is this: Is there a certain time of the week, or time of day, where you are more likely to be asked to give up your seat, in return for a free voucher? (Would this be flights that are heavily-booked, or maybe destinations where there are fewer flights per day.)

It seems like this would be a fun way to travel. Be flexible, do a good deed for another passenger, and help yourself out in the process.

From my recent experience, it seems like peak travel times such as Spring Break week(s) and major holidays would be the most likely time when you can get a voucher. I was trying to fly on Southwest on a Friday morning that was the start of Spring Break week for some, and flights were way oversold.

What really annoyed me was that after an older couple gave up their seats and got 2 vouchers, the airline realized they had 2 seats left -- at this time I was on standby for this same flight after having missed my real flight. So Soutwest PUT THE COUPLE BACK ON their original flight!! What the heck?! Doesn't seem fair. Isn't the point of having people give up their seat so that other(s) can get on that flight?? This couple not only got 2 free vouchers, but they got on the flight they had originally booked! So they essentially got free tickets for doing nothing. There were others on standby after me -- two of us should have gotten on that flight instead.

If you figure it out together with which lotto numbers come up this week, let us know. :-)

I fly VERY frequently, on very heavy busines routes as well as vey popular leisure routes, and to this day I can't figure it out. The airlines revenue dept. runs a very sophisticated software that predicts loads on any given day for any given flight/route. They will oversell tickets for any flight, but the oversell number varies depending on the flight and the prediction. You have to remember that airlines sell full fare, fully refundable tickets to business people mostly that need the flexibility. Many of these people don't show up for the specific flight with the full knowledge they can get a refund and buy another ticket. That's why the oversells happen. On occasion you will have everybody show up and that's where the bumping game begins. Also, some airlines offer vouchers for future flights. Be careful with these as they are very restrictive when you try to redeem. The best is cash, obviously, but most airlines are getting away from that. The second best is cash voucher which could be used as cash to buy any ticket that you want to buy within a year on that airline.

The question that you have to ask yourself is this. Do you actually want to buy a ticket to anywhere even if somebody told you that a bump is very likely just to get a voucher? There are certain days (Thanksgiving eve and Sunday, around Christmas, Florida in March/April), but what if you did not get the bump? now you just spend some money on flying somewhere where you really did not need to be.

It a great game to play and it's true that people can increase their odds by understanding it a little better and then trying to anticipate bottlenecks. I always take $$$-value vouchers instead of "free trips" because they are useable against any flight I choose to schedule and I can earn miles on the flight -- something that may not be true of trip vouchers, which can often be far less flexible. (Admittedly a trip voucher can sometimes carry more monetary value, if you are able to schedule something that would have been more costly.)

There are some obvious times when the chances are very good, such as the beginning and end of Spring Break or major holiday weekends. You just need to build the flexibility into your schedule to accommodate the bump. Morning and late afternoon flights on business days can be good, depending on the destination involved. The cancellation of a prior flight can leave the airline scrambling to reacommodate passengers and produce an instaneously overbooked situation.

If you're interested in bumps, it's always a good idea to find out just how booked up your flight really is. Here's a good online tool:

http://www.flyaow.com/classavailability.htm

Go to the AMEX ITN tool and plug in your itinerary, leg by leg. If you're seeing a bunch of zeros for available seats in every class, then the prospects for a bump may be very good. (I have a flight next weekend that I already know is overbooked, along with the one after it. Reservations have been closed for weeks. In fact, we already have a couple of vouchers on the way after the airline contacted us and asked us to adjust our routing.)

Next step: get to the gate early and ask the agent if there is a volunteer list going. You want to be first in line and the best way is not to even wait for the announcement. (I've had situations where I got the only bump available by being first on the list.)

We've collected many thousands of dollars worth of vouchers this way and it will certainly make your travel budget go a lot farther if you can pick some of these opportunities up along the way. Our best ever was a pair of $800 vouchers on a bump off $329 tickets, but $300 has been more the norm.

AAFF is right, and I too have no "luck" getting bumped over the years, though I did have an international upgrade on AA once, many years ago.

Anyways, like AAFF says, the airlines are more likely to overbook flights with a lot of full-fare passengers who can get refunds. That means major trunk route like flights among Chicago, New York, LA, Dallas, Atlanta, for example. Those are also the ones with frequent flights.

Again, I never base my bookings on chance of bumping, but these are things I'd do to help my chance. I'd look at the online seatmap of my flight a couple days ahead (good practice anyways - you want to make sure nothing's changed for your flight and your seat). If there's no open seat, that means there's a good chance of overbooking. Do not check luggage. Go to the airport AND THE GATE early. Sit right next to the gate counter. Run to it the second they ask for volunteers so that you're first on their list.

And don't bother if you have complicated or multiple connections further down your itinerary, or if you're flying overseas. They probably will bump someone else first.

Edit: Well looks like I'm just repeating what Flyboy's saying... :D

We flew on both Southwest Airlines and Northwest Airlines last week and both asked for people to give up their seats (one flight was to Phoenix and the other to Mpls - both from LA) and they seemed to need quite a few extra seats. We didn't take advantage of this as we had to be in both cities but the people who did seemed to think it was a good deal. On the NW flight they kept offering more and more incentives - some got pretty good.

rkkwan, you added one important item though: Not checking baggage. It can be helpful in the bump game and I forgot to mention it. ;)

I was on a flight from JFK through LAX to Kona on American. When we got to LAX, the connecting flight was overbooked by three seats. They asked for volunteers, none come forward, they started first by offering a free flight coupon, by no takers. They got one man to give up his seat for a 600 voucher I thought about it, but we were flying with our two kids, and they would not give me four vouchers.
They kept offering higher and higher amounts until they got a couple to give up their seats for two, TWO THOUSAND DOLLAR vouchers! I couldn't believe it. American also put them in a hotel, with meal vouchers and transportation to the hotel. This guy knew his business, he told them what it would take, and they eventually went for it.
The only down side was that the next flight was the next evening, 24 hours later, so you lose a day in Hawaii.

I fly SFO to DEN very often and they are offered regularly. I never take them, because my time is worth more than sitting around in the airport. But my daughters have taken them at my encouragement and have ended up flying a couple of hours later in business class.

Would you need to have booked your tickets directly with the airline (or airline website) to give up your seat, or can you still volunteer to fly later if you have booked with Orbitz or Travelocity?

I don't think that would have an impact. A seat is a seat and that is what they are looking for.

If you do the process and the next flight is the next day, is a hotel room and food vouchers usually part of the deal?

Also, if you do have checked baggage and it makes it to your final destination a day before you, do they just lock it up in the office and wait for you to get it?

Can you usually name your terms (like a class upgrade on your new flight, etc.) or is it usually a set offer?

I don't think they would choose someone with checked luggage unless they could get the luggage off the flight, because of new security regulations. I don't check luggage and I give myself a 24 hour pad on either end of an itinerary whenever possible. I also bring along a couple of good books and/or some work I need to get done. It paid off on a flight back from Hawaii last December, and I hope to get bumped at some point on a trip to NYC this week.

jbee,

Bump amounts and perks vary. If they only need 1 or 2 people bumped, obviously their offer will be low, because there is always somebody willing to take them up on it. If they need 10+ seats(I have seen that), the offer will start little higher, but again, it won't be anything spectacular, because they want to see how many volunteers they will get first. International bumps get more, domestic less. Only when it's becoming apparent to the gate agents that nothing is working, they will start to raise the offer and quite possibly maybe even offer upgrade on the next available flight.
Don't forget, just because you volunteered and you were the first one, it does not mean that you will automatically get the bump. The agent will hold yours and others boarding passes till they get everything sorted out, and they will make their decision based on luggage, the final destination of the volunteer, the class of service you're flying, maybe even status, and release the other volunteers that would make it more difficult to accommodate.
If it is the last flight for the night and they can't find anything else with other airlines, they will give you a hotel and meal vouchers, possible taxi and telephone vouchers. It varies. If the airline has your address on file, they will not provide the hotel and meals if you are in our hometown. Again that varies from airline to airline and depending on the situation.
I look at it this way, if I have some extra time and depending on the amount of the voucher, I will volunteer, but many times they ended up not needing any volunteers or maybe few less and I went with the originl flight. It's important to remember that you will be one of the last people to board so many times the overhead bins could be full where you are sitting. Occasionally you may also loose a good seat for something in the middle.
It's not a perfect game for the volunteers only, the airlines know how to play it too. Many airline do have set limits for voucher amounts, regardless of what happens. They are allowed to involunteraly bump people, the difference is they have to pay you cash then and also it will go on their record with the FAA, so they don't like to do that, but if they have to they will.
Hope that answered some of your questions.

Also check this site for the amounts offered lately.

<b>www.bumptracker.com</b>

Thanks, AA. That answered pretty much everything. We're definitely checking luggage and our end destination is international, so we're not great candidates. Sigh. I guess we'll have to work on the getting bumped up a class process! ;)

I volunteered last month to be bumped. They didn't care that I had checked bags. They just kept it in the baggage claim office until I got there later.

Has anyone had any trouble redeeming their vouchers?

A man sitting next to me on the flight said they tripled the price of a ticket when he told the agent he had a voucher to pay for it.

I'm wondering if that is common. If so, it doesn't make getting bumped worth the trouble.

Connie, I have never experienced the price changing when redeeming $$ vouchers. You get the price before you tell the airline about the vouchers. Some airlines let you redeem the vouchers online.

I've had pretty good luck giving up my seat for a voucher. I give them my name ASAP when they ask for volunters and I am usually flying alone. Sometimes the alternate flight is better than the one where I was scheduled. and at least I avoided a packed flight that is probably late departing.

Keith