VDB compensation question
 

I will be flying EWR-IAH-ATL this afternoon and looks like EWR-IAH has a long list of standbys with both cabins full. If I get compensation and a direct EWR-ATL flight 4-5 hours later, is it greedy to also ask for PC day pass so I can wait it out there? BTW, the IAH connection was purely for the miles...

Thanks

1- Ive done VDB numerous times and NEVER was the PC a part of the deal nor will it be

2- no way will CO or any Carrier ask for a Vol in order to get a SBY on board. VDB is when a Carrier has oversold the flight and thusly has more passengers then there are seats, Anyone on SBY is not a confirmed person on said flight and thusly no VDBing for them

3- Ive been on flights that were oversold by 10 and we still went out with empty seats. CO has it pretty much down to a science.

Good luck but if its not way oversold you wont have to worry about what to do for 4-5 hrs

thanks
 

appreciate the detailed explanation.

For future reference, is there a way to know online if a flight is oversold before going to the airport?

www.seatcounter.com it wont tell you if its oversold but if you see 0s across the board for your flight its a good chance. then call up and ask that Carrier as I do I simply say Im on flight #111 and would like to try and get an extra appt in but dont want to chance it if we are way over booked. Sometimes they will tell you by how many or they will say we are by a couple or dont take any chance if you must be on that flight. Its very rare for an agent to tell U they are over by__ .

Again Ive been on flights that were way over sold and we left with a # of empty seats, so nothing is written is stone

I do not think this is accurate. As I understand it, the last people to check in without a seat assignment are considered on the over sale list and listed on the standby list, while holding a confirmed reservation, they are without a confirmed seat assignment.

I understood it that they arent on the SBY list since they are in fact Confirmed on the flight just w/o seating assignments

At any time there usually are people who are confirmed but w/o a seating assignment since only x% of seats can be preassigned with the rest given out at the Airport, those people will not show up on a SBY list either.

SBY are for those who arent Confirmed on said flight, if you have a Confirmed res for said flight then you arent SBY but a passenger w/o a seating assignment. SBY listed people are in fact not Confirmed on said flight

at least this was how it was explained to me a few yrs ago, maybe things have changed how its handled.

The main pt was that a Carrier wont ask for Vols in order to get someone NOT confirmed on the flight onto the flight

You can call the airline & ask. I don't think they have to tell you by how many, but they do have to tell you if it's oversold if you ask. At the airport, they usually have no issues telling you how many it's oversold by (which is good b/c you can usually judge if you need to wait at the gate or go drink in the PC).

Unfortunately for those of us wanting vouchers, this is disappointing. However, USAir is much less accurate in their predictions and I find it rather easy to score a voucher over there!

I've actually seen it done before.

It was an extreme circumstance and a pretty shrewd GA and supv at a UA outstation -- they had a cancelled flight earlier in the day (mechanical), and they were on the hook for hotels/accommodation for everyone who couldn't get out that day. All flights were full, so that was a lot of people. Many were trying to standby for any flight they could get.

So on the last flight of the day they offer to bump local residents (read: no hotel voucher) in order to get as many of the previously impacted pax (save a hotel voucher). By doing this, they paid out denied boarding voucher (funny money) instead of hotel vouchers (real money).

an isolated case due to irrops and as you said it was UA, I hardly doubt that CO would do the samething. Had that a couple of yrs ago with AA in ORD and I was on the last flight out to LGA where apx the 4-5 flights before ours were all CXed (weather) the SBY list reached LGA from ORD yet AA announced they dont need any Vols as the flight was full but not oversold

I found on the few US fights I recently took that a couple that were 0ed out on seatcounter, and no longer showing for sale on US were in fact sold to capacity w/o being allowed to be oversold. Especially the BOS-LAS and LAS-BOS flights

But getting a VDB on US means having to fly US another time and after having just flown them on 2 trips Id rather pass on that idea

I once was able to use a US VDB cert ($200 off) on a codeshare operated by UA.

Not sure if that was supposed to happen or not, but it worked for me.

US VDBs are allowed to be used on codeshare flights actually...

I have become the king of bumps...I have yet to get a lounge pass on any of the airlines that I have volunteered for (mostly Delta and Continental)...However I almost always get bumped up to F class (regardless of what fare Iam traveling on).

Two weeks ago the gate agent at IAH refused to upgrade me on the next flight to EWR, but I went straight to her supervisor and had no problem getting moved up front.

There were a few years back that Delta did not upgrade on bumps, but that has since changed...More often than not you do have to ask and plead your case politely.

It was already covered that US bump certs are valid toward codeshares, but I would be curious to know when this was and if the miles posted from that flight. Those of us who hang out in The Box learned recently via colpuck that US bump certs book into a super-special non-earning fare bucket.

For my IAH-CLT (and onto CLE) flights last week, they were still selling seats on US.com about 2 hours before the flight when the GA told me it was oversold and put me on the volunteer list.

I had to go IAH-CLE-IAH with 2 days notice and took US because:
1. I could connect in CLT and get more miles
2. The CO flights were about 2x the cost
3. The CO flights were full up front so I wasn't gonna get upgraded anyway
4. My coworker was going, too (he chose the direct flights), and I really hate traveling with him

It turned out that for my $612 US flights, I got a $200 voucher on the outbound (and got pushed to the CO direct flight arriving within 20 mins of the original flight) and a $400 voucher on the return while in CLT (they then pushed me to the CO flight CLT-IAH where I could get the exit aisle on the RJ). I'd take that deal any day, esp when work buys my tickets!