Originally Posted by Qwkynuf

I was ticketed on a Delta flight last year, traveling from CAE-ATL-PDX. When I arrived at the airport to check my bag, the agent told me that they were looking for volunteers to switch to a different flight because my Atlanta flight was oversold. She said that if they needed my seat, they would switch me to a CAE-CLT-DTW-PDX routing, but even with an extra stop I would only get home 7 minutes later than scheduled.

I figured that would work - extra miles, extra segments.. With me as a lowly Silver Medallion, anything helps!

After thinking for a second though, I asked her what kind of seats I was likely to get? I had confirmed aisle seats already. I started losing interest in the deal when she told me that all she had was middle seats at the back.

Her supervisor overheard and came over to help. He first suggested that they just proactively move me to the new flights so that they could choose from what was currently available, rather than what was left at flight time. Then he noticed that the flight from CAE to CLT was already full, so I said that I would just stick with my original flight.

And then he says.... "How about this? How about if I put you in a taxi and drive you to Charlotte? And I know that is an inconvenience, so I will rebook you into 1st class for the CLT-DTW and DTW-PDX legs. And you still get home just 7 minutes later. And here, have some free drink coupons - they won't be useful for this trip, but maybe in the future...."

So, a free 90 minute taxi ride, first class coast to coast, and a handful of drink tickets. Not a bad haul for a Friday afternoon. As a side note, that taxi ride was one of the scariest car rides I have ever experienced. The driver was very friendly. He shared with me that he had arrived here from Ghana just 5 days before. Apparently they do things differently there....