First time poster here, so please bear with me. TL;DR version: I did a VDB and was rerouted through JFK with confirmed transcon service...in DeltaOne.

My initial flight was BWI-DTW-SFO. I bought this ticket some time ago since I tend to buy my tickets for Christmas wayyyyy in advance (I think I bought it in March 2016).

Checked in online 24 hours before flight but there was no option asking for volunteers. Looked at the BWI-DTW seat map with a few standbys with a three seats remaining (this was the flight I thought would be overbooked). DTW-SFO looked fine with many seats available.

Got to BWI early and thought I'd re-print my boarding pass at the carry-on only kiosk. As expected, BWI-DTW was asking for volunteers!! If you don't already know, DL uses a "bidding" system. There are a series of default values: $100, $200, $300, $400, $500, etc. most people will try to press the highest value thinking they will get that compensation. Nope. Do not do that. There is another option, CUSTOM where you enter your own value. What I did was take one of the values and knock it down by $14. Sure enough, when I got the VDB compensation voucher the gate attendant said someone bid one of the default values and I was smart for bidding a few bucks lower. I think most of us can live without an extra $14!

Anyway, at that point, I entered my bid and proceeded to my gate. The standby list for BWI-DTW grew to about 10 with three seats remaining. After that afternoon flight, there were only two other BWI-DTW flights and I did see that one of the later flights was delayed meaning some of those folks would want this earlier flight. I approached the gate agent politely saying that if she needed any volunteers, I'm willing to take a reroute. She thanked me and wrote my name down the list. It was clear that they definitely needed my seat after seeing that standby list so after the previous flight deplaned, she went and proceeded to clear the other standbys.

She called me up to the gate and said I was rebooked for a later BWI-DTW-SFO flight. But: I was confirmed in J class! What a pleasant surprise!But, hold your horses. I did some research the night before and found that DL flies B737s or A319/320s from DTW-SFO. Meh. The daddy of them all are the B757/767s that are used for the transcons from JFK-SFO/LAX. So, I asked the gate agent if I could instead be rerouted to BWI-JFK-SFO because I thought the J service would be better She punched in a few keys and made it work! The terrible part of it was I was arriving in SFO after midnight.

I was pretty patient and not pushy. In fact, my initial telling her about my volunteering was something along the lines: "I was a volunteer for this flight to take a later flight. I'll get out your way but I'll be nearby if you need me." Folks, some sense of decency please. Don't be a jerk and overwhelm the poor gate agents. Especially if you're standby. Especially even more so if you're a non-revenue standby. Traveling by air during the holidays is already a stressful endeavor and you would be surprised how much a smile and an easy going attitude will get you. In fact, when she was processing my VDB voucher and rerouting request, she gave me a meal voucher! So off I went with a VDB voucher, 2 boarding passes (BWI-JFK in Y and JFK-SFO in J), a meal voucher, and a smile!

The BWI-JFK leg was delayed by almost two hours. I was afraid that I wasn't going to be able to make my JFK-SFO flight but (thankfully) that leg was delayed, too. I eventually boarded my BWI-JFK flight and arrived at JFK. Note that this leg was a one-class service but I did have one of the seats closer to the front! Fortunately, as a result of getting the J Confirmed seat, my entire itinerary was upgraded to SKY PRIORITY.

At JFK, because I had a seat in J, I was able to access the SkyLounge in Terminal 4. It was actually my first time at that lounge. I was monitoring my delayed JFK-SFO flight and thought I could probably squeeze in 10-15 minutes at the lounge. So to the lounge I went. The Delta staff checking me in the lounge was telling me that earlier in the evening, the lounge was VERY busy. But, because we were well underway in the evening, the lounge was clearing out. I grabbed a cup of cucumber water and a cup of soup. Very impressive array of foods but with not a lot of time, I didn't explore the entire lounge.

Eventually, I boarded my JFK-SFO flight in transcon business class and what an experience! I was pretty mellow the entire flight and since I don't have any status with any one airline, this was a treat.

All in all my initial BWI-DTW-SFO in Y for very little (remember I bought this ticket back in March 2016) turned out to be a later BWI-JFK-SFO trip wth VDB voucher, transcontinental J class, meal voucher, access to the lounge. I'd say I didn't do too bad!

Some final thoughts:
*I can't emphasize enough that people need to be patient with VDB. I think I lucked out getting some of these things because it was just one of those days that wasn't completely screwed for DL. Don't come in expecting that you will get J class. It doesn't always happen.
*Download one of those apps that monitors flights. It helps you gauge when to anticipate incoming flights, etc.
*About the bidding process: I intentionally did not mention dollar figures because I actually think DL has a great system (no I am not affiliated with them and I don't get paid by them...except with vouchers ). I gave you hints as to what I think could help you put in a competitive bid but for the sake of the process, I left out the values as to what I paid, how much was compensated in VDB, meal vouchers.

If you made it this far, kudos! Any thoughts you may have would be greatly appreciated.