Originally Posted by dkc715

Me and the Mrs and my two adults kids on our way from EWR to RDU this past Saturday morning, prior to noon weather moving into EWR. Apparently, a last minute aircraft swap created an oversell situation (overbooked by 6 in first, and maybe more in Y). We were in economy. I’m getting food, but my kids call and say gate agent offering $1000 to VDB. By the time I get to the gate, offer is up to $5000 and not much crowd interest due to pending weather and possible overnight stay. Agent quickly jumps to $7,000 and I walk over. By the time I talk to the agent they go to the $10k max. Long line forms after me! Wife and I snare 2 VDBs and we meet my kids in Durham 4 hours later after clearing the standby list on next RDU flight. Weather not much of a factor when we left early afternoon.

Another father and son take $10k each and decide to drive. Solo female grabs an afternoon flight to GSO which is where she wanted to go. $50k in comp to the 5 of us, plus more to some downgraded first passengers. I’m surprised and happy UA didn’t just cancel the flight.

i could fly UA every day for the next 100 years and never see so much $$ for so little effort.