United Airlines was overbooked by 14 passengers on a flight to Las Vegas. They hadn’t even sold more tickets than seats.
- Everyone was already boarded and had seats
- It looks like they were weight-restricted perhaps due to hot weather.
- They can no longer just kick off individual passengers
- So they would have had to deplane everyone
- But they had no time for this – credit appear to have had limited time left in their duty hours, so this might have forced them to cancel the flight
According to United’s announcement,
For your safety at this time, after calculating the numbers, we called our dispatch. We do need 14 passengers off the aircraft and for the rest of you passengers onboard that don’t want to volunteer, I just want to make you aware we’re kind of racing the clock here with your crew. If we don’t meet that time frame, unfortunately, we will have to deplane the entire aircraft. I want to apologize in advance. If I have 14 volunteers, $2,500 in travel credit apiece.
They started offering ‘bump vouchers’ and with as many people as they needed to raise their hands they bid pretty high. People started getting excited. Many didn’t have to be in Vegas on time, and it felt like they were winning a jackpot before even getting there because the offer was $2,500 in future travel. For 14 people, that’s $35,000 on a single flight.
Looking for thousands in free non-taxable travel yourself? Traveling on popular days isn’t enough to be overbooked, since airlines have models for how many people will show up. They overbook flights but they do it for a reason – because they expect people not to show. The models are usually pretty good over the holidays (not many people skip their flight home after Thanksgiving). Historically it’s busy travel days where people do change their plans – less leisure, less holiday – that have the most overbooking where airlines take volunteers.
Aircraft weight issues – because of small planes, or extreme temperatures – can throw a monkey wrench in plans. Years ago I took bumps on several consecutive Sunday nights out of Rochester, New York in winter back when United Express was an 18-seat Jetstream 32. The flights weren’t oversold, just weight restricted.
United, which became very generous after the David Dao passenger dragging incident in April 2017, cut back on their compensation at the start of the pandemic. The days of $10,000 travel vouchers from United to give up your seat have long passed! But $2,500 it seems is still possible.
This is how badly United didn’t want to give me cash: pic.twitter.com/sI7vmbeB2Q
— Allison M. Preiss (@allisonmpreiss) March 22, 2018
Sometimes what to do as a passenger is a real conundrum when you’re offered compensation – one boyfriend got in trouble for taking $2,000 from Delta to delay visiting her. He should have spent half of it on her to make up for it.
Delta pays out actual gift cards and not just their own travel credits like most airlines do. Here’s an agent literally begging passengers to take $1,300 to give up their seat and take a later flight, because more people showed up than they had seats. After the 2017 David Dao dragging incident Delta authorized gate agents to go up to $9,950..
(HT: Johnny Jet)
They can no longer just kick off individual passengers?
When did this start? Frontier Airlines is still doing this.
Oh man had me excited before clicking the link, thought it was 35k compensation for 1 passenger/seat, not 14 after seeing the article!
Yes, it’s called clickbait. Gary is well known for the hysterical headlines that are based in a kernel of truth but clearly misleading.
The only way I’m volunteering for giving up my seat is if I get cold, hard cash. I don’t travel enough for Travel Credits to be of use.
Many decades ago I flew out of TUS. Some still flew 737-200s. I would regularly see them board a plane, the temperature would rise, and they’d deplane a handful of passengers. I’m sure they never got that much $.
@Luke: 🙂 Many readers probably thought the same thing. But just remember, with Kirby “Kutback”, that amount $35,000 will never happen even one gives up seat for the other to go around the world. FYI – Mr. “Kutback” limits $2,000 when responding to volunteer as check-in.
What happens to your luggage if you take the bump? And are you obligated to fly on the next flight they offer or can you consider this a canceled ticket and get a refund?
Useless vouchers and credits that have black out dates and expiry dates. Only ever give up your seat for cash.
Meanwhile, the two times I’ve volunteered (at the very first offer — around $200), they gave away my seat and then found a middle seat in the back of the plane after everyone finished boarding, and stuck me there.
Don’t fall for it! What you’ll get is so many credits per flight. Delta gave me and my travel companion “$200″…. but it turned out to be $50 off per ticket that expired in 12 months.
It’s not like you can actually use them all at once and go to Europe.
I saw …$35k … 14 passengers… average about $3k+ a piece…
A travel voucher is pretty much the same as cash to me, since I fly so often. I’d take a $10k travel voucher over $2k in cash in a heartbeat.
Manny and NeverAgain, above, are right on target; too man restrictions & expiry dates; don’t fall for it; ask them for gift cards w/ no restrictions, as Delta Air provides; then you can use total credits on several different tickets in the future, or for int’l. flights.
Misleading headline. It was a total of $35,000. Not $35,000/passenger.
@Gary I’ve read replies here about validity, use, blackout dates, etc. that are inconsistent with my reading of the policies at AA/DL/UA websites. Might I suggest an article about this? UA was oferring a nice bribe in 2022 to give up a J seat on SFO-MEL flight with a hotel and replacement J in 24 hours. If I knew I could have used the voucher to get part of a J seat’s cost on the same flight in 2023, I might have done it.
They should know before the plane starts to board what the wait limit is on a flight, gas vs people vs baggage vs heat. They should never board a flight without knowing these things first.
Right after people started flying again after Covid calmed down I was on a red eye from Seattle to Newark. They were asking for volunteers as the flight was way overbooked I sat back and watched most people took &1000. When I saw they were desperate I went up to desk and told them if they could still get me out that night and give me $2500 I would do it.
Worked out just as I planned also asked for upgrade to first class. They Found a flight on a different airline and I literally got home 2 hours after my original flight.
Also got 2 other people who were on standby on the same flight.
I used those travel credits to visit my daughter in Seattle 6 times!!
Shameful, I usually read your posts, but I made sure to read this one. I am not daft; I knew there would never be a situation where any airline would offer me $35,000, but I just HAD to read. SHAME on you for resorting to CLICK BAIT.
The dreadful basic economy product becomes a selling point for the credit card: $95 a year to buy up out of much of the misery. I keep it also for the access to better selection on many award redemptions.
This article read like it was AI generated. Anyway, got weather canceled on a Frontier flight earlier this year and they offered a $50 reimbursement to my registered credit card for any restaurant purchase that day.
Where was this flight originating?