Well, there's also the part of the confirmed F.

There are other reasons for choosing a flight other than time of arrival, and sometimes when you want a later time of arrival due to transportation or other issues.

My opinion of what happen is they should give every volunteer a voucher, even if they arrive earlier. I had never heard of this before. I have even taken a voucher and a refund, so I could fly WN due late on Friday's from SJC-SNA to visit my daughter. (years ago, when you could fly that route on AA)... The last minute fare on WN was a lot cheaper then the voucher I got from AA, since I was only going for the weekend I usually had just a backpack and laptop

Sure, but that appears to have been a comped upgrade. $300 to give up an upgrade that cost $0, in addition to getting there earlier on a direct flight, seems like too much of an ask.

Perhaps, but as mentioned above, they don't even owe compensation for an *IDB* if the passenger gets there less than an hour late. One can argue that getting to the destination early, and on a direct flight rather than a connection, are already forms of compensation.

Anyway, I wasn't trying to give the OP a hard time. I was just having a little fun when I posted #4.

Did you not read the part about not voucher, so that's $0, not $300.

I did read that part. The OP didn't get the $300, so the OP declined the VDB.

Would they give him a paper voucher for $0.00?:rolleyes:
PS: OP was NOT being IDBed ANOTHER passenger might have been.

This has been discussed before on FT. No compensation is due and one might want to take it if they want to get home earlier. However, I'm not sure whether its left to the GA discretion on whether the voucher is paid out. Also, I wonder if one takes the direct flight but takes a downgrade to Y if the voucher would be paid out.

Interesting.
I was on SFO-DFW-JFK with a further connection to TATL flight when AC crew approached me and said if I would agree to get $500 voucher and go non-stop SFO-JFK that would bring me to JFK 20 min earlier than SFO-DFW-JFK. I agreed (but mentioned that I have a checked bag), but then at the gate GA said they don't need my help. They gave a voucher to at least one person instead of me...

That said- who knows if all GA know this rule.

The "V" stands for "Voluntary". In OP's situation, AA could have IDB someone, perhaps OP, and not paid any compensation, so why pay OP anything at all? Yeah, the IDB is reported to DOT, but do people really care that much?

I don't think that there's a rule. It's just a policy to negotiate the deal as favorably to the carrier as possible. The first agent did a better job.

As I said in my OP, the voucher was offered over the PA, but then I was told *after* having volunteered and surrendered my BP, that I would not receive the offered voucher since they'd put me on a flight that got me to PHL earlier. This was not a deal I was willing to make, as I wasn't in a hurry, and I'd rather fly in F on a A320 than Y on a CR2, and get extra EQMs in the process.

I believe they ended up taking the OTHER volunteer, who was actually a party of two, so AA paid 2x $300 in vouchers and took up two seats on the alternate flight(s), rather than letting me have it.

So, whether it's policy or made-up rule by the GA, I can't see how it was a favorable outcome for AA.

With VDB, you can get whatever you can negotiate for.

In situations like this, it's usually in AA's interest to still offer a cheap voucher, maybe $100...because the IDB cost would still be more, no? Not to mention a voucher is better for AA then Cash, which is what's given for IDBs.

They made you an offer you didn't like. You said no. Really don't get why this is a big deal.

Personally, I would've taken the opportunity to get home earlier without even thinking about it. But that's me (and, I suspect, many other folks).

I never claimed it was a big deal, nor do I think the tone of my OP makes me sounds terribly exercised over the whole thing. The main point was that I'm unclear if this is AA policy or something the GA made up, for future reference.

Also, I wasn't going home (which is irrelevant really), and I wasn't in a big hurry to get to PHL at a particular time (as I also stated). I've explained my reasons for declining the modified, reduced-value offer. You are free to act based on your own reasons if you encounter a similar situation.