Was flying PIA-ORD (CRJ-200), onward to AUS, when I heard a member of the ground staff ask about ballast. I immediately thought that there must be some kind of weight & balance issue, so I started to look into other plans. They then started asking for volunteers to check their carry-on -- for those that don't know, even though the CRJ-200 has tiny overhead bins, and nearly everything is green-tagged, the weight calculations treat checked luggage and carry-on luggage differently.

They didn't get enough volunteers to check their luggage, so they announced they were looking for volunteers to take the next available flight -- the next morning. They started at $1000, plus hotel and ground transportation costs. I double-checked ExpertFlyer and saw that there was still plenty of space on AA's PIA-CLT-AUS flight; the only problem was that it departed 35 minutes later. I said I'd volunteer if they could get me onto the AA flight. The lead agent had the other guy call over and verify they'd accept one more passenger, and then he sent me the ETC, re-ticketed me on AA, took a screenshot of my booking, walked me over to the AA gate, and made sure the AA agent was able to get me checked in -- at this point, I think it was 19 minutes prior to the AA departure.

I ended up making it to AUS a few minutes earlier than I would have otherwise -- I'd had a long ORD layover that turned into a short CLT one -- and a nice crispy ETC for my trouble. And, I was able to double-dip credit on AA and UA by requesting Original Routing Credit afterwards.