There are occasions when a flight is so overbooked that oversale is inevitable. But, 3 seats on a micro-hop such as this could disappear with one traffic jam. Carriers have no desire to, nor should they, shell out C$1,000 when there is ultimately no need and that can only be determined at the gate (for flights such as this).

People are quick to judge about what is "toooo haaard" but most of them have no clue about the business operations they criticize.

I've been in situations where I wanted a reroute (for no fee) because my flight was over by a few people. They declined. By the time it got to the gate, I was called up and offered a reroute, but the timing no longer made sense, so they had to shell out hundreds of dollars to multiple people. I had two on my itinerary, and could have saved them quite a bit.

But because they left it to the gate, they ended up paying out about $800 instead of waiving a SDC fee at check-in.

$800 for domestic overnight is also what I am always offered as well.

I posted about this in the YQB do thread, but for a recap and followup:

Friday, September 21, the last YYZ-YQB was over by one. A couple beat me to the podium, but they wouldn't split. I, however, was fully willing to split from my group.

I was given $800 "cash" (they mail a cheque, but the other option is a credit), a hotel and negligible meal vouchers, and my choice of flight the next day. The fact that I was in J made a big difference, as the first two flights were full in Y, but not full overall, and they would not have booked me on them had I been in Y (I witnessed an "IDB" who was only given Y options).

I was out of town and I don't know how often my roommate checked the mail, but the cheque showed up no later than Saturday, October 7 (though quite possibly earlier).

Under two weeks seems standard for me on ex-Canada flights, with the cheque mailed to SFO.

Yeah I was shocked to receive my VDB cheques "relatively" quick. Like light speed in AC terms!

VDB Oversell Lost
 

Hey. Accepted VDB for oversell this morning, was told $400 comp. Was offloaded but then called back and put back on original flight.
should i still receive the VDB payment? Lost original seat assignments so i was removed from flight.
thoughts, please
thank you

If you got back on the flight, no VDB compensation is due as you weren't denied boarding (ultimately).

For the lost seat assignment, you could write in to customer relations and maybe get a 10% off code or something like that as compensation. If you had paid a fee to select the seat, they should also refund that fee.

you had 400 reasons ($) to do VACATE the gate area after you received the compensation. or to hurry up and spend the voucher online.

sounds like the agent took you off the flight but moved your status to standby. not only did you give up your seat # but also your boarding priority, your best chance for bin space, etc.

//Not specific to AC but I've had some airline agents put me back on standby just in case. I think if I end up clearing AND keep voucher due to no-shows it looks bad on them for jumping the gun and issuing compensation before final boarding was done. When I am asked for the voucher back I have been able to politely refuse saying I was trying to help them and already gave up x, y, and z.

This is why most AC agents don't even touch the vouchers and accomodations until after the gate / flight is closed. I've had this happen to me before which is why when I volunteer I have them pull me from the flight right away and rebook me and then sort the credit once the flight is closed. Since they've already committed and moved me flights, they can't back out on the voucher.

But yeah, crappy.

I don't understand why they'd take your seat before they know they need it.

Every time I've VDB'd, they haven't offloaded me until they were printing the voucher.