Originally Posted by
cordelli
Be flexible in your plans, and expect to volunteer way more then you are actually used, and expect if the flight they are putting you on is full, you may have a middle seat.
You can always make your acceptance of a bump voucher conditional on a decent pre-assigned seat on the flight where they are protecting you.
On a recent DFW-SJC flight AA was offering a $200 voucher to take a flight about 2 hours later. I was the first to volunteer and would have gotten the bump except my upgrade on the original flight had cleared and the only protect space on the later flight was in Y. For 2 hours of my time and an F>Y downgrade, $200 just wasn't enough. The agent understood, thanked me for my interest, and I took my original flight.
To the poster that said on U.S. carriers status tends to help you get a voluntary bump, I'd have to agree based on my experience. Successful vouchers so far multiple times on AA as a Plat and once on DL as a Gold. DL seems to keep track of volunteers on paper whereas AA enters you on their computerized Priority List as code "VOL"