Originally Posted by
Sounder
Fwiw, I've got about 100k lifetime miles on AS and successfully had a VDB once, PDX-SEA in the early afternoon. $300 voucher and the gate agents rerouted me (at my request to swindle some extra miles from the deal) PDX-GEG-SEA. I got home barely 2 hours later than I otherwise would have.
I've come close a couple other times where the gate agent had me on standby waiting to see if the last few people would check in, and one other time when there were 2 seats needed so I got beat out by a pair travelling together who wanted it.
Those stats are funny as the AA rate is only a bit higher per 10,000 passengers than AS (0.43 vs 0.39), yet I hear AA ask for volunteers more often. The thing is they often don't use any of them.
I don't think I've ever had a VDB with AS, but I don't seek them out most of the time. I have taken a couple with AA, one of which worked out very nicely.