Originally Posted by
mahasamatman
As long as the airlines continue to oversell and bump people, there will be people who take advantage of the situation. The ones I don't like (though I wouldn't go as far as calling hem conteptuous) are the people who purchase full fare, and if they don't get a bump, just refund their ticket. At least the OP actually intends to travel.
Well stated.
BTW, there is no arbitrage in booking a flight in hopes of scoring a VDB voucher. The airlines have FAR more information than you do on the probabilities of no shows or full fare bookings, so while you may get lucky on occasion (I remember in early 2003 I scored three bumps in three months - with minimal inconvenience), there's no free lunch.
Also - a bit off topic - but does anyone feel they "grow out" of bumping? I remember years ago I got so excited about getting bumped... OTOH, I'm on a heavily overbooked flight this Friday ORD-SEA and might be able to score a bump and fly a few hours later... but I'm just thinking "I don't want to mess up my dinner plans...so there's no way I'll bump"