Last night I took the 412 DEN-BWI. When I checked in at the kiosk, the machine gave me the option of volunatarily giving up my seat for a free travel voucher. Never seen that before.

The bad news: full flight that was way overbooked.

The good news: "The Speech" worked! I went up and talked to the two very nice GAs as they were asking for volunteers to deplane and let them know that I was willing to volunteer... to move forward They were both very friendly and nice and told me that, as long as people say thank you, it's their personal policy to bump you up every time!! Fortunately, my thank you was coming out right as they told me their policy, so no trouble there!

Important note: They mentioned that nice pax during the holidays will ALWAYS get free upgrades from them because they are so used to grumpy pax who are delayed or whatever. SO, always remember to be polite and friendly with the GA's and your chances of an op/up will sky-rocket!!