I was flying redeye LAX-IAD-ORF the other night (2240 departure), and the flight was oversold by 26, according to the RCC agent. She put me on the volunteer list, but couldn't find any way to get me to ORF till the next day, all other eastbound redeye's were full, even trying routings via ORD, MCO, BOS, and JFK.

At the gate, a full 70 minutes before departure time, the GA arrived. After she got settled in, and made an announcement that they were looking for volunteers, I approached her to inquire about routing possibilities, telling her I was already on the volunteer list.

She happily nodded her head and told me she could put me on LAX-ORD-ORF leaving at 2325 (a flight the RCC told me was full), processed my VDB (I took the DBC-free, TC would only have been 200) and even got me the exit row window seat on the 767 LAX-ORD. And all this still a full hour before departure time!

At the LAX-ORD gate, they were seeking volunteers. According to the monitors, there were 18 confirmed passengers awaiting seat assignments, with 0 seats remaining. I was tempted to VDB again, but really wanted to get home.

So the first GA apparently forced me onto an oversold flight less than 2 hours before departure and even got me a confirmed seat assignment. I knew they had quite a bit of power, but had no idea they had that much!