I am going to write an airline with a suggestion and I wondered what others thought. I think when an airline asks for volunteers to give up their seat, the volunteers should be allowed to board the plane in the regular order if they so choose. If the seat is needed, the flight attendant can get the volunteer and he can exit the plane while the new passenger enters the plane.

The way the system works now (at least with respect to the airline I flew a few days ago), if a person volunteers and the seat is not needed, the volunteer is the last person to board the plane. There is often either no overhead bin space or none anywhere near his or her seat. It is safe to say that most volunteers have not checked their luggage and really don't want to. The flight attendant thinks the volunteer is just someone who was really late getting to the gate and is relatively more likely to be unpleasant.

I had this happen the other day. I responded to a very direct solicitation to give up my seat but it wasn't needed. I ended up having an unpleasant flying experience and got $0 in return. A much worse situation than if I hadn't responded to the invitation to give up my seat.