US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-2005 America West merger) - Interesting statement on Bumping

While flying this past weekend I took my first bump. My flight from PHL-PWM was oversold by three people and I agreed to take the bump and get in at 9pm instead of 5:30pm. The supervisor who came to the gate when I asked for vouchers instead of a free round trip flight credit said that vouchers are now being offered only when they can't find volunteers that will accept round trip flight credits. Is this entirely accurate?

Chris

In my experience that is certainly correct that they are only offered at that time. That doesn't mean that they can't still give you a voucher, but it's obviously at their discretion.

The only time I ever actually took a bump, it was literally two hours before the flight and they were so oversold, they gladly bumped me before they even started checking in the flight. In this case nothing had been offered yet, so I was able to negotiate the voucher instead of the ticket.

I had the same issue a couple of weeks ago.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum51/HTML/003115.html

It's really very silly of them. The face value of the voucher is monopoly money. They ought to favor vouchers over the free tix -- with a voucher you're almost always going to be shelling out some incremental real cash to take the trip. Cash that they wouldn't otherwise collect... And you have a lot less flexibility about when and how they're used if you want to stay anywhere near a "low cost" ticket.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by TomBascom:
It's really very silly of them. The face value of the voucher is monopoly money. They ought to favor vouchers over the free tix -- with a voucher you're almost always going to be shelling out some incremental real cash to take the trip. Cash that they wouldn't otherwise collect... And you have a lot less flexibility about when and how they're used if you want to stay anywhere near a "low cost" ticket.</font>

And even better they could negotiate the voucher sum. I forget the default voucher offer ($250?) but depending on the delay, I would probably accept less - $150 or $200 - so that I could reduce the price of a future ticket I would be buying.

Instead, they give out RTFCs which presumably get used for relatively more expensive tickets. Probably to those high profit routes like Florida and California.

Idiots...

Keep in mind that these free tickets come out of the Z award inventory, which means they're VERY hard to get, so I'd argue that this IS better for them as I'd imagine a fair # of vouchers never get used.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by TomBascom:
It's really very silly of them. The face value of the voucher is monopoly money. They ought to favor vouchers over the free tix -- with a voucher you're almost always going to be shelling out some incremental real cash to take the trip. Cash that they wouldn't otherwise collect... And you have a lot less flexibility about when and how they're used if you want to stay anywhere near a "low cost" ticket.</font>

Ummm....Sometimes. I'm still working down the $1,000 voucher I got last November.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by ITRADE:
Ummm....Sometimes. I'm still working down the $1,000 voucher I got last November.</font>

Still monopoly money -- as I recall you scooted out of an envoy seat and made room for someone who actually paid for it did you not?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by TomBascom:
Still monopoly money -- as I recall you scooted out of an envoy seat and made room for someone who actually paid for it did you not?</font>

Don't know if they paid for it - actually I tend to doubt it.

An A-330 was dowsized to a 767 so they were waaaay overbooked.

From US Airways' Customer Committment at...

http://www.usairways.com/customers/customer_commitment/appendix7.htm

"Selection of volunteers is based on a variety of factors. Volunteers may not be selected in the order received, and some may not be selected. If you volunteer and your seat is needed, in addition to space on the next available US.Airways flight, you will be offered one of the following types of compensation:

* A transferable voucher for one free roundtrip coach class ticket on US.Airways within the Continental U.S. and Canada, or
* A transferable voucher for a discount on a future ticket purchase on US.Airways, valid systemwide."

It appears that either is still an option...

Tonight I was told by a US Express agent in BWI that she "wasn't authorized" to issue a voucher. Since I nosed out another passenger in a race to the counter in a race for the one bump spot I didn't want to argue the point and ask for a supervisor (something is better than nothing), but it definitely seems that they prefer to issue the RT flight credits.

The agent also advised me that the RT flight credit was capacity controlled, and nodded when I asked "like reward tickets?" She confirmed that it was transferable, but said that I must personally go to a ticket office in order for a ticket to be issued--regardless of in whose name the ticket is to be issued. Has anyone else encountered this restriction?

[This message has been edited by chalf (edited 12-27-2002).]

I received a free RT voucher on my birthday 7/11 and just gave it to my friend for Christmas - Albany to Asheville. They asked me to go to the airport and turn the voucher in because it was in my name. I did so and received an ETicket itinerary for the dates & times agreed. Felt odd getting an ETicket that was not for me.

Question is really for me, if USAir goes chapter 7 does this eTicket get honored by Delta...hopefully I won't have to test that.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by chalf:


The agent also advised me that the RT flight credit was capacity controlled, and nodded when I asked "like reward tickets?" She confirmed that it was transferable, but said that I must personally go to a ticket office in order for a ticket to be issued--regardless of in whose name the ticket is to be issued. Has anyone else encountered this restriction?

[This message has been edited by chalf (edited 12-27-2002).]</font>

Yes, I gave mine to a co-worker who had to go to Florida on a family emergency. It was an off-peak time and I was able to get her on a flight the next morning. I went to the airport to transfer the ticket to her name. It was an easy process.

People also sell these vouchers on Ebay.