trek87

In partial reference to the OP, is this amount also intended to cover costs if an overnight stay is required as a result of volunteering? Or in that case, would one also be able to negotiate a separate hotel voucher+meal vouchers on top of that?

GBadger

There were some posters recently who reported $200 for overnight out of JFK.

On a related note, is it still SOP to book medallions into F/J if they volunteer?

GBadger

Generally, it's DL dollars + hotel voucher + meal vouchers, but I always make sure to ask.

zsmith2

An overnight stay will have DL dollars and meals/lodging vouchers.

trek87

Awesome! Thank you for your reply. I've never volunteered for a later flight, but I might get the chance to try on a very full flight that I'm on this weekend out of DTW.

Is it typical for the F passengers to be offered more compensation? My father was flying SLC-PHL earlier this year in paid F (flight was very full due to many cancellations out of SLC to the NE that day), and he was offered $600 to take a flight the next morning.

edymsn

Maybe I'm misunderstanding this particular post, but I have not found this to be the case in all situations.

I got bumped from a PDX-DTW flight last month to a PDX-MSP flight the next morning and was not given a hotel voucher. The GA told me that hotels must be separately negotiated; in my case it turned out not to be a big deal, since the PDX-MSP flight was so early that it wouldn't have made a whole lot of sense to waste the time going to a hotel, so I didn't pursue it.

HWGeeks

I had a GA make an annoucement when she was asking for voluntears at LAX it was the red eye back to JFK and she was offering 400 and she specifically said if you live in the LA area no hotel voucher would be offered.

N231LA

And if it doesn't...Don't accept it. Should be $600 DLD, meals/lodging vouchers or find someone else.

zsmith2

Exactly. I don't know what GA would offer such and not do meals and hotel. If you take it w/o then shame on you.

jzumrick

It has been policy if you are bumped from your initial destination leg of a flight you are not given a voucher. You should be offered one for any delays returning from your original destination. The problem with a red eye bump is that if you are on the initial flight out, you may not get much sleep due to the time to return home or even reach an airport hotel. Remember, you can always negotiate to a later departing flight or refuse the bump.

MSPDeltaDude

This is false buddy!

golfingboy

My experiences YTD:

March 2010
LAX-ATL [10:55PM flight]: $400, hotel voucher at LAX Crowne Plaza hotel, 2 meal vouchers covering dinner and breakfast, and rebooked into F.

April 2010
ATL-SLC [12:10PM flight IIRC]- $400, one meal voucher covering lunch, plus rebook on a later flight (4 hours or so). Ended up GA did not need my seat due to several misconnects.

May 2010
JFK-LAX [9:30PM flight]- $200, hotel voucher, and meal vouchers covering dinner and breakfast, rebooked on the next flight in the middle seat.

For JFK-LAX if they offer $200 and requires overnight stay, ditch it or negotiate for more compensation... $200 is not worth it, too much headache, unless you live near the airport. The GA wanted to limit my options to flights that only had the same fare class or lower which would have limited my options to only 2 flights, the 7AM flight or 9:30PM flight. I went like "mhmm, are you kidding me?" and I elected to deal with the other GA who rebooked me into Y, so I could pick whatever flight I wanted.

Bottom line, if the flight is longer than 3.5 hours and requires overnight stay, fight for $400 period. Do not be suckered into a measly $200 compensation like me. Learned my lesson the hard way. If they refuse to increase my compensation, I would stand in front of the line and board at the very last minute and get IDBed, where the compensation is two times more.

tortuga

In March my son and I gave up our seats at IAH on an overbooked flight to ATL. We each received $400 vouchers. We live in Houston, and the gate agent still gave us a hotel voucher because I was concerned about the otherwise long rush-hour drive back to the airport. The agent was very happy to have us as volunteers -- he said every flight out had been overbooked for days on end during spring break -- and the hotel voucher was no problem. When volunteering, I'd be sure to say a hotel voucher is important, and you just might get it even if you're in your home city.

Contradancer

I've never not been able to get a hotel voucher when I needed one (I agree with other comments to the effect that if I'm getting bumped in my home city a hotel is a convenience, not a necessity), so I don't know what I would do if that happened.

However, I have been offered less than I wanted. These days I am happy with $400 or more, not annoyed with $300, and bummed out when only offered $200. However I would be more bummed out if they bumped someone else for $200 because I said no.

And since recently for the flights I'm on the vast majority of the time the GA gets more volunteers than he/she needs regardless of what is offered I volunteer when it's only $200. Call me cheap.

icurhere2

My recent experience (14-May):

$400, one night in the Holiday Inn Suites, three meal vouchers, and re-booked in full Y (CR2) to take flight of my choice next morning. Flight was so oversold the GA processed me as soon as I went to the counter - had dinner and was in my hotel room before the plane pushed. If I had waited, I might have been able to get $600 but I was also willing to take $400 in hand and run