Sounds like a question for the Times's Ethicist (
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/featur...ist/index.html).
Originally Posted by
hobo13
Now if they didn't tell you the comp would be $400 beforehand, you are lucky that you didn't end up with a $10 meal voucher -- and that's it! Yes, reports are that that was the offer once last week from COdbaUA.
Sorry, could you link to that thread? I also saw you mention it at
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/18363834-post18.html but must have missed the original.
Edit -- never mind, i see it starting at page five of
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...-2012-a-5.html. That's hilarious that they got two volunteers to take a $10 food voucher and a rebooking on AA.
Originally Posted by
mogulskiir
I think UA's policy of $400 is fair for both sides and hope it continues.
Unless something has changed very recently, UA's new policy is to try to offer the lowest applicable fare in the market, rounded up to the nearest $50 increment; I have heard offers as low as $150 and frequently hear $250 offered to take an overnight delay on a transcontinental flight. They bid upward if they get no takers.
An offer of $400 is unusually high and suggests that the gate agent thought "ooops, I forgot to say what the offer was before I took the volunteer, I had better pick a number really high so they don't complain", or that the market was really expensive, or that the gate agent was quietly rebelling against the CO policy of VDB compensation which is generally lower than $400 but is negotiable if necessary.