No need to buy into the idea.
From a DB compensation perspective, no need to record conversations.

Just make sure to ask the GA for, and receive, the "Notice of Denied Boarding Compensation" receipt I posted yesterday upthread.

What I meant by verbal was if the agent said something like - you should get $500 comp, now go to the CS desk they will take care of it or call AC later. That means you left the gate/flight to board your next one whenever it departs with no written offer or voucher.

But that was AA... maybe they do this better than AC? Would this be the same case if they put you onto an earlier AA flight instead of OAL?

Terminal Change?
 

Also, would this incident not made you clear CBSA in Terminal 3, take the train to Terminal 1 and finally re-clear US CBP? Sounds like a headache even with NEXUS/GE! (assuming that you are a Trusted Traveller)

Yes, I did this and I have Nexus/GE. Made it with a little time to spare. US CBP was annoyed that AA let me leave the restricted area (thru a side door) without being removed from US CBP checkin. He called a supervisor and then they let me thru since I could not do it automatically.

She obviously knew I was going to arrive earlier on the AC flight. Not sure what they would do if it was on the same carrier. I suspect she was desperate to get a volunteer on an oversold flight and rather than delay an already delayed flight looking for volunteers she paid me.

AC 1948 on Tuesday 12th was 0'd out well before the flight. Asked at check-in how many it was over by and was told by 2 in economy

At the gate I asked if they needed volunteers, was told that they might and to please stand aside in case they wanted me. I told them that I was going to board but to please let me know if they needed me (overhead space on the ACR 319s is always full, and wanted my bag over my head in J, rather than swimming at PTY later)

They ended up needing me, so I deplaned. I did confirm that the re-routing would be all in J before this, and asked if I could go through Europe (I looked at several routes the night before). The CS Manager said that it might be possible

She walked me up to guest services and I played around with routings to maximize miles - they didn't allow Europe, and unfortunately SFO/LAX to PTY was all 0'd in J, so I ended up getting YYZ-PUJ-PTY. While only being 500 BIS more, it would actually get me quite a bit more status & award miles as the 2nd leg was on Copa, who I accrue my miles with

The compensation offer was an $800 CAD draft cheque, which is not much use to me due to the fees I would pay on trying to cash it. So I countered asking for travel credits, and tried my luck with $1,600. They said that they could give me travel credits, but it would be a max of $800 and to get more it would need to be approved by a much higher up. They did call someone and then said I could get $1,000 CAD in travel credits, if that was better for me

"Thanks for the extra $200"

All in all, a great deal for me. $1,000 CAD to get in 6 hours later :) . Too bad no 15K extra miles by going through Europe :(

tl;dr

Flight oversold and needed volunteers
1st ever VDB/IDB for me
$1,000 CAD travel credits to fly 6 hours later and more status/award miles
2x $15 CAD meal vouchers, which have a 1 year expiry

I VDB'd from YVR-TPE on Feb 17. In addition to receiving the little boarding-stock receipt that yyznomad posted upthread, the cheque, dated Feb 19, arrived no later than Feb 28 (I don't check mail every day).

I find this process to be very efficient - no more than 11 days from VDB to having the cash.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...107ed06940.jpg

How many more miles did you get from your re-route?

The 7M8 issue is really creating interesting situations here in SFO.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...4da0ad11e7.png

Thats brutal.

Looks similar to YUL-SFO, but worse!

I did my first VDB this week. Although I've thought about volunteering several times before, it was the helpful information from this thread that gave me the confidence to actually go ahead with it. I got my printed receipt (like the one pictured up-thread) and an email a few hours later. Now I'm just waiting for the cheque in the mail. They handled everything at the gate once my original flight had finished boarding (no need to go to customer service) including rebooking and the compensation claim.

City, flight, VDB amount, re-routing details?

Congrats on the score

YUL->YHZ->YYG. Rerouted on direct YUL->YYG arriving just over 2 hours later than originally scheduled. Standard $800. They called for 3 volunteers and more than that went up, so no negotiating room.