Considering that some people in the VDB thread have reported getting $1500 for a flight later in the day, $8-900 seems really weak for a TWO DAY delay. Given that this is the middle of the week, that would probably mean burning extra vacation days for many. Not surprised they didn't get enough volunteers.

DL solicited bids for both BNA-SEA and SEA-SFO today but neither flight ended up processing any VDBs.

The GA offered $800 for a 4 hour delay on this morning's SDF-MSP when I inquired. No shows brought it back to capacity so no eclipse pay day for me. I suspect traffic caused that, I left Hopkinsville at 3PM CT and didn't get to my airport hotel until 1AM ET and that was with the assistance of two navigators working back roads.

Hopkinsville
 

Drove from Chicago to Evansville IN (had booked hotel in February!). Monday morning it was easy drive to Hopkinsville. Found a nice spot downtown. It was fantastic there. Added gravy--we saw the two eclipse flights in the air right after the totality clearly patterning around it. Made us smile even more.

Getting back was a traffic nightmare--I didn't realize that people would take 2-3 days coming in, but would all leave at once! (duh!) The 90 minute morning drive took 3 hours--and then even way more the whole way back to Michigan. Between construction zones (thanks Indiana...) and post-eclipse traffic, early doubled the 8 hour drive.

But we all agree it was worth it!

P.S. Our first thought had been Carbondale, which had some weather issues, so glad we chose Eclipseville. Props to the town who planned for it well!

Agreed. BOS-IND routinely offers $1000 AMEX gift card and there is another flight in about five hours.

I ended up flying in and out of IND and driving down to Tennessee after several flights several times as the weather reports changed. Definitely worth the trip. Flight coming back was oversold by 8 and they were offering $400 to take the next flight an hour later, but didn't need anybody. Apparently, double-bookings in the system are a big issue and seeing how the trips that I had refunded were still in my profile until I called to have them removed, I see why.

SEA-RDM they were looking for 4x $600 on Wednesday 8/16, and offering a re-route onto SEA-SLC-RDM arriving 8 hours later (which based on loads would also likely have had some bump opportunities).

And on our return RDM-SEA they were looking for 4x $800 on Thursday 8/24.

Very tempted to take both, but passed at those amounts. If each was $400 higher, would have taken them up on it.

Our trip to CAE went well. We were delayed out of ATL due to an abundance of air traffic landing at CAE. Arrived about 12:30 PM (45 minutes late). Had time for lunch in the terminal and we were able to watch the beginning of the eclipse through the terminal's skylights.

Went out to the top deck of the parking garage about 1:45 PM. Watched 2.5 minutes of totality at 2:41 PM. Joined the very long Pre-Check line at 3:00 PM.

Was offered $800 to take a later flight but they only needed 2 seats and we were a party of 3...

Short delay after push-back due to the General Aviation traffic, but eventually jumped the line. I counted at least 20 GA aircraft in line for take off.

It was a long, 15-hour day but we were able to see the eclipse and not get stuck in traffic. Can't wait to do it again in 2024...

We (wife and I) watched from Fairmont, NE.

Flew in day before (OMA, stayed in Lincoln). Used a bump voucher so flights were free. Other half hadn't been to Nebraska before, and I only had for work, so spent a bit of time downtown Lincoln. Haymarket was nice.

Forecast had been for clouds, and when we got to Fairmont (population 520) it was looking pretty grim. But, as the eclipse started, was looking much better, and it really was good during totality. We got lucky, and it was awesome.

Drive there was only an hour (took back roads) and drive back 2+.

Also looking forward to 2024. If you haven't seen it, really hard to describe.

p.s. Why Fairmont? Was right on the totality line, and hotels in Lincoln were way more reasonable (Hampton for $110 a night) than other places we looked at. Thought about Beatrice, but after hearing some horror stories about driving back, I think we made the right decision. Town of 520 probably had 3000 there.

We also went down to Hopkinsville from Michigan, but then continued on to Chattanooga and the Smoky Mountains. I-65 was packed heading north afterwards - glad I wasn't in that. :D