Agreed, completely. Call the airline the day of or the night before to determine availability and whether its oversold or not. A nice gate agent or a nice telephone agent can tell you how many they are oversold by.

If they are oversold, get to the gate early (For both my bumps this weekend, I was there when the previous flight from the same gate left, too early, I agree, but I had a time limit on the rental car), and talk to the gate agent. Other gate agents working other flights can usually help you out if you are patient. The GA usually seem to get to the gate about 1 hour to 45 minutes before boarding. It helps to be courteous (of course we should all be courteous to the GAs) and knowledgable - "I spoke to the res line and they told me that this flight was overbooked, I am willing to volunteer should you need me" is a better approach then nonchalantly asking, I think.

Also as robbert stated above, it's best to have alternate plans available. Call the airline's res line to find out when the next flight is scheduled out and what the connections are, if none are available, try the partner airlines then the competitors for times & routing so you can "make suggestions" if it will help you (i.e. get you home faster).

Look at this thread if you're interested on how they credit miles based on who/what you flew, as I had a small issue of misinformation.

[This message has been edited by bhatnasx (edited 10-20-2003).]