They were asking for volunteers but no one was taking the bait. I'm usually a sucker for vouchers, but it would have bumped me over a night in DC and I would have lost a hotel room (in my destination city) and some time, and they were only offering $200. I said to the gate agent "for more than $200, we'll talk" and she just laughed and told me to get on the plane. They were denying people boarding involuntarily (but apparently not IDBing them, lol) based on check-in order (amongst those without status, I'm assuming), according to the GA.

There were a couple people who got pulled out when their BPs were scanned and held there at the gate. One was an elderly lady whose first language was not English and she was quite upset and clearly did not understand (I mean what, in a sane world, would make sense about not getting something that you paid for?). I felt really bad but the compensation wasn't enough to make me want to take one of their places. This was at 35x at DCA, and the bus left without them...

In retrospect and now knowing about the exemption for RJs of 60 pax or less, I am wondering if that's why they were lowballing the vouchers for volunteers - knowing that they wouldn't have to compensate the pax that they forcibly kept behind?