Originally Posted by
davetravels
A while back, I was flying XXX/MSP/SEA, and I knew THE MSP/SEA flight was overbooked. I was chatting with the GA, and she told me she was over by 3.
She had been paging a family of 3 going MSP/SEA/GEG (I think it was), because she wanted to offer them a nonstop instead of the SEA connection, and get in 3 hours earlier.
Paging, paging.... No answer. Suddenly, they appeared! DRAT!
Anyway, they were occasional travelers, I'd guess, and they were just THRILLED to not hafto connect, plus get in earlier! Nothing was ever discussed with them about comp. I stood there the whole time!
That said, while, technically, the OP here probably isn't entitled to anything, surely the GA must've known the OP was looking for comp. Who in the world would ask about a VDB and NOT want comp, especially to change to cr@ppier seats on such long flights?!?
Are there some kind of bonuses for keeping stations under a certain VDB budget?
I think that this is different than the OP's case because, in the case of this family, the routing was actually a significant improvement over their original booking. Presumably the family did not book the nonstop flight because it was more expensive and so in this case, they were given routing that was more valuable than what they paid for.
Not so with OP. At best it was an even exchange, but with being given worse seating (especially on a long flight) I think most would agree that that he was given something that was worth
less than what he paid for, and not compensated for the loss of value. Also, OP responded to a request for volunteers, which almost always means compensation. The family was sought out with a specific offer in mind, that being the offer of flying nonstop. I would say that the OP was tricked.