On AA5875 from PHL-YUL tonight. They’ve been begging me to change my flight for the last week. Today, I get asked to bid. I offer the highest, $975.

The agents show up late to the gate (SOP, used to that) and announce they’re looking for volunteers. They don’t seem particularly enthused about selling the opportunity. Nothing is said to me and I’m not called to the desk, so I board the flight.

Right as the door closes, the GA pokes her head in and says she needs to talk to me. Funnily enough, she must have realized how this looked and quickly added “you’re not in trouble!”.

So now they have to grab my gate checked bag and then process my voucher. We’ve now been working on that last step for 15 minutes and they’re struggling mightily to get me rebooked on the promised flight.

I am frankly happy to do this when I have the time just to help out a fellow traveler but I would really appreciate if they didn’t push this to the very last minute. I’m positive they lose plenty of willing volunteers by doing this nonsense; for me, it took a 100% certain decision down to a coin toss.

EDIT: We are so hosed when the last AA old heads leave. It took them well over ten minutes just to confirm my place on tomorrow’s flight and they still hadn’t closed the flight as I left. Not exactly confidence building.