I've never been in the position to try not making my confirmed flight. 7 Feb flying SJC-SLC. I spent my extra time in the lounge. Once at the gate they were asking for volunteers for $800 with the next flight out at 10am the next day. That was too late for me so I sat still. Decided to look up the flight options for the next day and there was a 6am flight available. They were getting ready to board and announced again, so I stepped up. Asked if I could get the 6am flight the next day, and when they said Yes I put myself on the list. They were looking for 3 and I may have actually been the third person. Heard them give my seat away, then cleared one of us to get on. He asked a few times "wasn't I the second person to volunteer?" He may have been, but I got the bump. He was in F, not sure if that had anything to do with him being placed last, or just a mistake, or maybe I really was second.
After boarding as we were being taken care of a woman walks up who had missed the flight (if she had arrived 5 minutes earlier the third person wouldn't have made it on).
They then rebooked me OAK-SLC leaving in about 90 minutes. They called a Lyft driver and we were off. Traffic delays made it look like I might miss it, but traffic cleared and the carpool lane helped me arrive with 10 minutes before boarding. Arrived in SLC about 1 hour after my originally scheduled time.