Ah, bumping stories make the heart warm, don't they?

My favorite was on a trip from STL-BKK on a Northwest frequent flyer award. I was connecting in Tokyo after the long flight from Minneapolis when they asked for volunteers. I jumped across the throngs waiting for the flight and threw my ticket at them. They took about 6 of us and offered the usual $400 cash and overnight hotel and meals in Narita town and the first flight out the next day on JAL.

I was in no hurry and because I was on a FF ticket they offered me a flight on the NW flight the next evening. No problem I thought (secretly hoping I would get bumped again and again into infinity).

The NW flights to BKK and SIN that connect through NRT all arrive around midnight, a pretty lousy time to get there after a long flight, so spending the night in a comfy hotel appealed to me. I also jumped on the train the next day into Tokyo to visit some friends and visit old stomping grounds. This is very ironic because when I arranged my FF ticket I tried to get a stopover in Japan but couldn't because the ticket was an open-jaw return from Manila, no stopover allowed. So I got my stopover anyway.

The next evening I showed up for my flight hoping against hope for those magic words: "volunteers please". Ah well, that didn't happen, so I had to settle for the upgrade to business class, seat 1G. (Which I think I got because when the gate agent showed up at the gate before the flight I went up and discreetly mentioned that I'd be more than happy to volunteer in case the need arose. She actually took my ticket then and said she'd let me know. She boarded most of the flight before she called me up and handed me my ticket and my boarding pass.)

There is nothing like getting paid to fly.