Originally Posted by
corporate-wage-slave
That is fairly standard across the airline industry. BA will effectively put people on standby and remove the offer if there are a lot of no shows. There have been quite a few reports of this recently, and from what I can make out it is due to a shortage of aircraft at LHR, which means they are downgauging aircraft from A321 to A320 to A319, which can result in silly numbers oversold. As a result, if you can find out the aircraft type and the number of oversolds they are trying to identify, you can work out what sort of gamble is involved.
Two days seems silly to me though, a day's delay for a student on a 50€ HBO ticket would seem like a bit of a win for all concerned.
I heard of a family of five flying from BOS who did rather well out of BA one summer. They were informed in the lounge that BA were looking for five volunteers to spend the night in BOS and fly out the next day. They accepted the rather large (undisclosed to me but much more than €250 each) amount plus a hotel for the night and meals. Next day BA238 was full and the next flight with space was the 10pm BA214 and they were rebooked on that. Whilst at the airport the next day to drop bags for the flight they were informed that BA were again looking for volunteers. My source told me they happily accepted, took the money, hotel etc. and had another days holiday in Boston paid for by BA.