I was also bumped once on my way out of San Diego. I believe the runway there is just long enough for the largest planes they take, and it happened to rain on the morning that I was there. So, the plane had to shed some weight, and they asked for volunteers.

I was flying transcon UA (SAN-ORD-BOS), and the gate agent said that finding open seats on other flights was getting difficult, and it was looking like I might not get bumped. But I made some quick calls, and found that SAN-SFO-BOS might work. Showed this to the gate agent, and she booked me in transcon first class SFO-BOS (3 class flight)! The shuttle flight to SFO didn't have room to do 1st but I have to say that SFO-BOS flight was the nicest domestic trip I've taken. I don't know if it's equivalent to SFO-JFK service, but it was great.

Also got $300 out of it, and avoided the original routing, which got those passengers in to BOS 6 hours late, due to weather. Before this I hadn't really though about concentrating travel on one carrier, but after this, UA basically captured my loyalty -- why? 1) the vouchers put me into a cycle of traveling on UA that year, allowing me to reach PE status, 2) the accomodating staff and crew on that one trip, and 3) hopes of flying in transcon 1st again...