I think that your girlfriend had the right idea, take the BE seats offered for the next flight and be happy with the compensation. Remember, you volunteered to wait, your description of the situtation does not say that you were involuntarily denied boarding. This is especially true given the fare basis you quoted. Delta's obligation was to get you to your destination for those segments, the return trip would still be subject to the terms of your original ticket purchase. In my opinion you were treated fairly given your decisions.

Volunteer/Did I Get Good Compensation?
 

Last Friday afternoon, I was booked on a flight from ATL to PBI. We were offered $450 and a confirmed seat on a flight 4 hours later. I figured $450 could be a free ticket to Europe or possibly 2 tix within the US. To my surprise, they actually used my seat. Then I tried to stand-by on the next flight 2 hours later. Despite being overbooked by 40 people, changing the equipment from a 764 to a 763, and having the s/b list closed at 50 or so names, I somehow got an aisle seat on this flight, 30 rows closer to the front than my original seat on the earlier flight. Just for the record, I am a former SM and just starting to fly Delta again regularly due to business in ATL. Should I have asked for some upgrades as well, or be happy with what I got? Also, do volunteers from earlier flights get some sort of priority on stand-by lists? If so, that would influence my decisions to volunteer in the future.

$450 for either 4 hours delay is over $100 per hour. Then our course, yours was only 2 hours, so that comes to $225 per hour. And, that is AFTER taxes. Not a bad deal.

As to a trip to Europe? Maybe, maybe not. But it is $450 towards the next trip.

Good deal.

You did fine. That's more than they offer most of the time.

I got 350.00 for giving up my Comair seat yesterday mco/tpa and took the next flight.

The most I have ever gotten on DL was 500.00 this fall giving up my seat ATL/FLL and going in to PBI (where my car was anyway!)

TW

Believe it or not - I got $1500 last fall for an Atlanta to Memphis flight! The ticket only cost me $106 ROUND TRIP - go figure...

To answer the other question regarding standby status, you do receive a higher priority for standby if you were on a cancelled flight, so I would think you probably do if you were bumped as well. I think the general rule is that an inconvenienced passenger is accommodated at a higher priority than someone who is simply doing an elective standby.

What you paid for your orginal ticket, freebie, L fare or whatever really has nothing to do with the dollars offered. They need the seat and assign a dollar value based on people they need to get on the plane. An available seat has the same value, no matter what you had previously paid.

You did great. Due to missing a connection, I was trying to get to PBI on all those oversold flights. Standing by sucks. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

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"Sire, it is not a revolt. It is a Revolution!"

If you volunteer to give up your seat, and the airline accepts, here is a brief list of what you should ask for:

1) Voucher for volunteering (of course).
2) CONFIRMED seat on the next available flight of ANY airline(full-fare).
3) Upgrade if available, if not, waitlist to upgrade.
4) Meal voucher for use at the airport.
5) Free phone call (if you have anyone to call).

The confirmed seat is most important. If the next flight is also overbooked, then you might even get another voucher! But if you settle for going standby on the next flight, not only will you not get on an overbooked flight, you will not get any additional bumps. I once read where someone got bumped 4 times in one day! What a roll they were on.

If the wait until the next flight is a long one, I would also ask for a pass to the airline's lounge (most of them sell day passes, so should also be able to give you one).

Last summer my girlfriend and I offered to be bumped from an 8:30a JFK-LAX flight. Next flight wasn't until 2:50p (on DL also, no other airlines had anything better). We did get updated to BusinessElite class, which allowed us to get into the BE lounges. It made waiting the ~5hrs MUCH better (almost hated to get onto the plane!). In fact, we were in the lounge almost too long. Had we got to the gate a little sooner for the rebooked flight, we could have volunteered for that one as well, as it was also overbooked.

If I ever get bumped again, and have to wait more than 2hrs or so for the next flight, I'll remember to also ask for access to the lounge.

Jeff

Aubie is right on with this list!

A year or so ago, I was on an ATL-CVG flight in FC. The CVG airport had been closed due to snow and had many flight crews in ATL which needed to get back to work the flights out of CVG. DL need to put 25 FA on the flight and needed 12 volunteers. The PSR came on board and started the bidding out at $200 and a flight out the next morning (this was a 6:00pm flight). No one moved until he upped it to $300. He was still 2 people short at $400 when he whispered to the FC passengers that we could get off and be put on the 7:30pm flight in FC. I was off the plane in a dash. The PSR pulled me aside, rebooked me on the next flight in FC, gave me a meal voucher and $450 in Delta dollars. Easiest money I ever made. Paid for 3 of the 4 tickets I need that summer to FLL for a cruise!

Aubie - perfect, short, sweet and simple as that! Thanks!

Just a caution though. Even though they may agree to something and promise it, they don't always deliver. I know of multiple instances where the people were promised upgrades and confirmed seats on the next flight out just to get them off the flight and wound up holding standby coach tickets and a $5 meal voucher.

If they try to get you to go standby, counter with "what flight am I confirmed on?" The very next flight might be oversold as well, but you could probably try to standby for it and as a now "distressed passenger", you'd be quite high on the list. However, since you are entitled to a confirmed seat on the next available flight, even if it's a competitor, even if it's F, when you're involuntarily denied boarding so you ought to be able to receive this consideration if you volunteer. Don't accept standby, it's not the way to travel when you're doing the airline a favor.

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"Sire, it is not a revolt. It is a Revolution!"

[This message has been edited by Spiff (edited 02-06-2001).]

Here here, Spiff.

When I got bumped over Thanksgiving (and absolutely *had* to get the next flight to ATL to catch my connection to Amsterdam), I told the CR agent that I wouldn't accept the bump until I had a boarding pass for the next flight in my hand.

In 12 months (12/99-12/00), I received a total of $1800 in travel vouchers from Delta (including 3@$350 in one day!). I can't complain!