Originally Posted by cornellalum
A few years ago, I was in the same shoes as kipper. Non-elite, volunteered to be bumped, got bumped. At the end of the boarding process, though, there were empty seats due to noshows from delayed passengers. GA saw me there and asked me to board. I got bumped, and I got on my original flight!
Looking back, I should have stayed out of the area because the later flights were full, and I would have been bumped if I had not boarded the plane.
In my situation, we had to stay near the gate, or at least return before the flight left, as they were not printing new tickets until after the original flight left. I did consider trying to get bumped from my new flight, but they weren't dealing with any of that. The arriving flight had been delayed, so when they arrived, they herded everyone off the plane, then herded everyone on as quickly as possible. They stopped allowing people to stow carry-ons about halfway through boarding, and insisted everyone else gate check their bags, as they were in a hurry to get the plane off of the ground. Since the arriving flight, and likewise, the flight I was on, had been delayed, the flight crew was close to running out of flight time for the day. It was a, "If everyone isn't on the plane and seated, with luggage stowed and seat belts fastened in ten minutes, no one is going anywhere tonight." So, a bump on that flight wasn't going to happen.