PDB (Pre Denied Boarding)
 

Not the PDB we all know and love, but nonetheless...

I was flying out of ORD today and I was very early for my flight because I was getting a ride with someone on an earlier flight.

The gate agent for the flight one gate over made numerous announcements trying to solicit 4 people (who didn't have checked bags) to take a flight that was departing 1.5 hours earlier. It's T+15 for the earlier flight and they're still trying to find volunteers rather than let the flight go out with empty seats. I've never heard of Delta doing anything like this to avoid VDB/IDB.

Well, occasionally, the GA's are proactive. I would have taken the offer for the earlier flight, had I been at the airport and had no checked luggage (as long as they had an aisle seats).

Airlines have been known to call people the day before and offer an earlier/later flight for severe overbooking situations. I have even heard of calls to passengers in Hawaii that go something like: "Would you like to spend an extra day in Hawaii?"

Were they offering any VDB compensation, or were they hoping that the extra time at destination would be enough to entice volunteers?

I'm curious if they would have gotten more if the left off the bag portion. Domestic flights don't require bag matching and haven't for over a decade.

I think the title is a bit-misleading.

I doubt DL would pay VDB ahead of time. They don't even know 100% they'll need any volunteers for the later flight, but if they could eliminate a potential problem, and get a customer where they're going earlier, aeems to me it would be a win-win for the airline and passenger to me.

I'd hold out for my booked flight in hopes they need volunteers and go later.

Most likely its a convenience thing rather than a legal one.

If the earlier flight is at T-15 there is not going to be time to pull the bag off the later flight and then instead of a time savings, the person is just going to be waiting for their current flight to land anyway.

I've been asked at check-in (not gate) when I arrive early (we live far from the airport and are compulsively early...). and I've taken the early flight more than once. At least a couple times it's been weather related - expecting "weather" later on so they would prefer to get as many people out of the airport as they can, shuffling them off earlier if possible....I didn't expect nor receive any compensation other than making my connecting flights ^

No VDB paid in advance - just the benefit of getting home early.

I called it "Pre" Denied Boarding because it happens before V/IDB is necessary.

I see this fairly frequently. Call it PSDC (Proactive SDC) if you will. No VDB, but other than on FT, most people value their time and are pretty happy to get home early. Calling people the day before sometimes happens at international gateways when DL or other carriers know that they will have an overflow of misconnects.

The bag issue has nothing to do with security It has already been loaded so it won't be arriving until later and DL doesn't want to go through the mess of delivering your bag (and you don't want to stand around a line at the baggage office reporting the bag and then waiting for its delivery at home/office).

I think twice, I've gotten paid early -- once on NW many, many years ago and once on DL.
Agent said s/he was sure of the oversell -- the NW situation was on T'giving Sunday and the other was an equipment change. Agent said, no need for you to hang around the airport. Here is your hotel and meals voucher and sent me on my way.

I've gotten calls the day before about taking a different flight for a $200 voucher -- I think these cases were equipment changes though.

never hurts to ask right? While i'm always on the lookout for a bump, i'm sure there are many, many pax who just want to go home.

This happened to me in HSV in mid November. Flying HSV-ATL-LAX. The HSV GA was walking around soliciting folks to take the earlier HSV-ATL flight, which still had a few open seats.

I accepted the offer, as my scheduled itinerary had a 50 minute layover in ATL and many of the morning flights from HSV push and park due to ATC (flow control) in ATL. I had a checked bag, which was not a problem.

And sure enough, even on the earlier flight, we pushed and parked for 30 minutes. But that ate into my new two hour layover instead of my 50 minute layover.

So I guess perhaps I denied some worthy FT road warrior a shot at a VDB jackpot. Sorry about that. :cool:

David