Was flying SLC-RDU the other day with a connection in BOS. Lady at Skyclub told me SLC-BOS was oversold by 8. Left early, headed to the gate, agreed to a VDB on the condition of being rebooked in full F/J via ATL and $200 which was great since I'd be getting home early and would be making money.

However when I got to the gate for Atlanta, I was assigned a economy seat. When I told the GA that I had VDBd in exchange for a seat in J, she told me that there was no seat left in J and that the other GA had made a mistake and changing class of service was illegal. At that point they also needed volunteers for ATL but the only alternates would have gotten me into RDU the next day which I didn't want.

I got the extra miles for the rebooking in J and F on the two segments home, but I'm bummed cause I had already been flying for a while and was incredibly tired and was really hoping to relax and sleep on the long transcon. I'm worried if I complain to DL I'll get my class of service MQM and RDM removed. Worth it?

When it comes to compensation, re-booking in First Class is never suppose to be used as compensation for denied boarding, meaning when you bump you should be happy with the amount of Delta Dollars that was offered.

Many times, they might rebook you in F, but that is not policy and if not worth a complaint to Delta, as if they investigate they might remove the class bonuses.

Disagree completely.

if I accept an offer of a VDB, it is for whatever they offered me. We are not talking about "compensation", we are talking about a bargained transaction. I could care less what DL expects their GA's to do, that is between them.

The OP sold his original ticket in exchange for a flight that had an F segment.

WFBF works both ways.

I make sure before I leave the original gate that I am set - that is I would not have left without FC seat assignment.

FWIW I was asked to VBD this week from a connection to a direct on a RJ. I asked if could get my original MQM - no, would they give a FC seat - no only put me on the upgrade list, was a seat on the 8:50am flight available - yes, but since it left 5 min after my original flight and would get me in before my connecting flight - no Delta $$. So I declined and kept my original seats and collected the MQM miles. All of the above was per policy but with no flexibility I ain't going to VBD.


I have also had a mutual VBD before getting to airport because of weather in Philly. We agreed to the flight the next day which was great cause we needed more time and they immediately gave us both FC seats. A win-win.

Yeah I didn't want to make a fuss because I think the flight may have been J1 but there was not actually any actual seat left to assign. By the time I got to the ATL gate it was too late to go back to the BOS gate. Additionally I did get $200 for getting home earlier too which was super nice and I even got more MQM for flying less due to the 200% MQMs I earned. So all in all not a bad experience, but I had just wished that all of the bargain had went through.

I would expect the GA handling the VDB to give me boarding passes for (all of the) new flights. Did this not happen or did the OP fail to verify that the boarding pass showed a FC seat assignment?

Get your VDB voucher and new BP in your hands before agreeing to the hand over your BP.

YYZ MSP HNL: YYZ MSP oversold by 4 but I can get a later flight MSP HNL which would still let me make my cousin's wedding in Maui.

The other couple that volunteered just took the paperwork handed to them and headed off to the bar.

I checked and we were not given F seats MSP HNL as part of the agreement. GA had to get Redcoat over who called to release two F seats for us.

Other couple went up to gate at MSP during F boarding and was told they are in Y.

This sounds like your GA may have promised more FC seats than were available on the new flight. Good for you for checking and insisting that the agreement be honored.

YYZ were contracted GA and TA with a few DL employed redcoats floating around.

IME when it is contracted GA/TA they are more likely to make promises that are less likely for you unless it is in writing.

When I did a vdb on a recent flight they said they couldn't assign a seat in business but did give me y class so I was first on ug list with one seat. I cleared.

A thousand tales of woe like this on FT.

Rules 1-3 of VDB are that it's a bargain. But, you also need to understand that out-of-sight is out mind.

Do not leave the CSR handling your VDB without the paperwork in hand, particularly if you are VDB online where the GA could clearly have printed the new BP. As soon as you walk away, it's a he said/she said and you're gonna lose.

Exactly. Be sure to double check all the paperwork the GA gives you - VDB amount correct? Meal vouchers? New boarding passes for the correct class of service? Hotel vouchers if applicable? I am very polite but very thorough when I VDB.

As was stated above, it has nothing to do with "compensation" but rather with negotiation. I have often negotiated an F seat for a new flight when I was VDB'd. One time I was told by the GA it was not available. But I was told to go to the TA outside security to complete the paperwork. Before doing that, I double checked myself about F availability and sure enough, plenty of room. I told the TA that the GA said she would have booked me into F if there was room, and it looked like there was. That nice TA indeed rebooked my new flight into F.

Why did you have to go outside security to do the paperwork?

Completely untrue.

This