I should have learned my lesson the first time when I volunteered my seat on an overbooked flight and received a $200 Delta voucher. It was a short flight with minor inconvenience.

When making a reservation using the voucher, I learned that it had to be processed at the airport or a Delta Ticketing Office within 24 hours of the reservation. For me, an inconvenience as the airport is 1 hour away. AA allows you to mail in vouchers after making reservations. Not so Delta!

I bit the bullet and traveled to the airport.

It was a simple transaction; 1 ticket on one voucher and I owed a few dollars.

I couldn't resist the 2 hour inconvenience on an Oct. flight that was offering $400 vouchers and there were two of us. However;
I was not prepared for the additional "rules" that came into play when I went to use these two vouchers.

I made the reservations over the phone with a very nice Delta representative and told her upfront that these were vouchers. She put 3 reservations on hold.

I was prepared for the trip to the airport to process the reservations...3 people (2 with the same itinerary and 1 with a multi segment trip). I traveled to the airport on Thanksgiving weekend, Sat. during what I expected to be a "quiet time". It was!

The Reservation Agent was very nice, but spent a long time reviewing the "rules" associated with the voucher. This was a standard bump.

The first ticket was processed. No problem. I was then told that the vouckers could not be combined. (Unlike AA) The second reservation was processed, a more expensive multi segment trip on the second voucher. The third reservation was processed with the "leftover" voucher from the first ticket, but I had to pay the difference since the $93 that was "left over" from the second voucher could not be applied.

The final straw was an unexpressed "rule" that the voucher that remains from the "cannot-combine" voucher has to be issued in the name of the passenger (who is my daughter) even though the original voucher was in my name. What is the problem?

My daughter is away at school and will never use the "left-over" voucher and I was the traveler, so in order for the new voucher to be used, the person to whom it is issued must make the trip to the airport or ticketing office to apply it.

I'm not sorry we took the "bump", but I do say: VOLUNTEER BEWARE! We ended up paying $97 for 3 tickets and have a voucher for $93 in my daughter's name. Still a good deal, but not as agreeable as some other airlines make it. The "rules" are not fully stated when Delta is looking for volunteers. It may look like the voucher is as good as money, but you may be disappointed when it comes to actual usage.

Just another way that Delta Management defines the rules. I know we can't shoot the messengers as the people I talked to were nice, but I shouldn't have to get to the last minute to understand that they've written "rules" I don't know about.