Firstly, I’m not sure if a thread already exists for this. I searched but couldn’t find anything, feel free to move to the appropriate thread.

I wanted to share my experience with accepting compensation for an overbooked plane (on an international itinerary). Also, I’d like to clairfy that I did not end up flying on a different flight due to some no-shows.

Passengers were already lined up for boarding when they announced that the plane was overbooked and were looking for one passenger to fly on a later flight with a layover. I believe they offered some amount first, and after increased it to $1200CAD at which point I offered myself. The delay on arrival would’ve been around 5hours but it was the middle of the day, so I wouldn’t mind. The agent said they’d place me on standby but hold my seat until everyone boarded, and rebook me at the end just in case of no-shows. So I waited until the end, and in fact two people did not show up, so after paging them a few times on the speakers they decided to have me board and depart without them.

Unfortunately however, some other agent must’ve given my seat away, as it was no longer available and so I was given the last row of the plane, but assured I had a free seat next to me. So, I was able to travel on my original flight, of course receiving no compensation but on a worse seat. And the seat next to me did not end up being free, as another passenger’s IFE did not work so they were moved next to me. If they had ended up moving me to the other flight, I would be $1200 richer. Oh well!