The 9 am Dec 21 flight from DCA to GSO was oversold (Dash 8 over by 7). I was going to volunteer, but as I made my way to volunteer before I even knew they were going to ask, I was waiting in line behind a woman without a seat assignment. She obviously did not fly much and was outraged that 45 minutes before departure she had no seat assignemt. Sensing an opportunity, I told the gate agent next to the one dealing with the excited would-be passenger that I'd be willing to volunteer if I could get something more than just a RTFC. It worked, but there was a condition. She could not get me into GSO until 9 pm that nite. I told her I had to be there by 6 and offered to go to CLT or RDU if ground transport could be provided. She called her supervisor and in the end I was confirmed on a 1 pm flight to RDU, given a voucher to take a $186 cab ride to INT (I insisted on INT rather than GSO since its closer to my parents and USAir has so many folks near there), one RFTC and one $200 voucher for travel, two phone cards and vouchers for breakfast and lunch. I ended up getting home about 3:30 but it was worth it. This also was done 30 minutes prior to departure, so I was able to eat my omelette at Fridays and then go back home via the metro and relax there instead of the airport. The whole thing was seamless, but one important lesson: You must ask for the extras! As I made my separate deal, the other three volunteers that were used all settled for one RFTC and the meal voucher!
Not too bad for a $158 Xmas ticket home!

Uh, who cares? So you're Greedy and took advantage of them being oversold. So what? I still don't get why people need to come on here and brag about how they got something for nothing esp when this airline's in the state it's in. Did you brag about how in 9th grade you beat up some 7 yr old for his lunch money?? Yeah, we're all proud of you.

Geez....lighten up. I realize that y'all are tense after having screwed up the 2000 election.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by HPTunco:
Geez....lighten up. I realize that y'all are tense after having screwed up the 2000 election.</font>

Yeah..but they got it right in '02

Not to condone the tone, but the first time I read the story, I thought, man, this is why the airline's chapter 11 and maybe chapter 7 .. I mean, come on, spending more on the taxi than the actual fare?! Employees like that are giving away the farm. I know everyone wants to keep the invol bumping stats down, but sheesh...

More power to standby for getting all the goodies, but while I don't encourage USAirways nickel-and-diming that kind of bumping has got to stop if they are going to stop bleeding red ink.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by foodguy:
Yeah..but they got it right in '02

</font>

I thought that there were "irregularities" in '02 also.