Havent flown Delta since summer but will be in a couple weeks (IAH-SLC-ONT) and I just got to thinking about my college days in the late 90's and early 2000's. During the tech boom in Austin, I got bumped on nearly every flight home to PBI. One trip in particular I got bumped twice on the outbound (two times on the AUS-ATL leg) and three times on the way home (twice on the PBI-DFW and once more on DFW-AUS). Each bump paid a whopping $750 in vouchers and put me in F class on the next flight, most of which were overnight waits that included hotel and food vouchers.... I litteraly never paid for a flight or had to sit in coach until well after I graduated from UT...

Now that I dont fly as much as I used to, I was wondering how often stories like this take place?... My guess is that I was in the right place at the right time and that none of us are likely to experience anything like that ever again.

NW. Now part of Delta was bumping on the MCO to MSP flight this morning. They offered $300.

Lots of people get bumped. One just needs the right route, day and time.

http://www.bts.gov/publications/nati...ble_01_58.html

Those numbers are MUCH lower than I thought. So in 2000 when I was bumped five times in one trip, I was only among .21% of those being bumped nationally... Impressive!

Those numbers are for involuntarily denied boarding. The voluntary numbers are higher.

As you can tell from the name, it still happens, and some of us make quite the profit - but it does seem to be happening (at least to me) a bit less frequently. The last few times it looked like they were going to need volunteers, there were delays on other incoming flights that caused people to miss the flight . . .

For the most part, the $750s are long gone . . . $200 for delays under 3.5 hours and $400 for anything over that.

The chart clearly shows voluntary and involuntary bumps. the percentages shown (including the one quoted by Joe K) are for the total of both voluntary and involuntary. It's simple enough to check the math to confirm this.

These numbers seem to be about what I would expect - about 1 to 2 passengers bumped out of every 1000 pax boarded.

Clearly, getting bumped is rare, with less than 700,000 (out of 600 million) bumped in 2007.

I've been traveling for work for three years (2 as GM, 1 as PM). I can count on less than one hand the amount of times I've even heard them solicit for volunteers. I've never been in danger of an IDB (although status probably has something to do with that). It seems the very few times I do hear them ask for volunteers, I always need to get to where I'm going on time. I guess I'm in the vast majority! Although the fact that I'm ATL based probably factors in, as well.

In my 4 years as a DL PM, I have heard DL ask for volunteers once or twice. I wish they asked more, as most of the time I would certainly give up my seat for compensation.

I remember when I used to fly UA MCO-LAX-MCO weekly. They asked for volunteers every Thursday on the LAX-MCO red eye. Back then, I had no interest in travel other than for business so I never gave up my seat.

I would be willing to bet that more and more folks have become educated on the secrets of getting bumped (i.e. getting on the volunteer list as soon as the gate opens) so that nearly ever flight has at least one person willing to volunteer. If their oversold by one, there is no need for a formal announcement over the PA asking for volunteers because they oversold their flight(which marketing folks realized wasnt the best PR in the world anyway)... That and the fact that airlines have gotten better at predicting the overall no-show rate.

I was bumped off a LAX to ATL flight about a year ago. Every Delta flight going east was also oversold that same evening. The gave me the $400 voucher and put me up in a hotel. I returned the next morning and made my very early flight. Two other DL flights were oversold that morning.
A fellow bumpee told me that for DL, LAX is both high yield and unpredictable about the show/no show rates.
I have been bumped by DL out of LAX several times in the last two years.

Three weeks ago, I was bumped on an ATL-SAN flight, but only got $200 as I was put on the next flight. On Friday, I was bumped on SAN-ATL, but scored $400, a seat on the red-eye ("sweeeeet", not.), an FC (ok, that was nice for the red-eye). Up until that point, the "bump well" had been dry for 1.5 years.

Scored a nice bump last Saturday -- 2/14

ATL - MIA 7:30 a.m. flight

Went over by about 5. My family had 3 seats volunteered. Originally they said the only departure to MIA with seats was late in the evening. Booted up the laptop and found seats to RSW on the 9:30 a.m. Reserved a 1-way rental car for $100.00.

They took my tickets and offered $400.00 Travel voucher each $1200 in total.

After the plane pushed back... the gate agent ended up getting us confirmed for the 9:30 a.m. to MIA! I believe they upgraded the flight to a 767 and there were additional seats available. $1200 for two hours was a great bump.

We were going on a cruise and needed to kill a couple of hours in MIA anyway!

They honored the orignal $400 per ticket offer. Nice!

I've also experienced a "bump drought" it would seem. It had been a couple years I think, but last September I scored a bumped on a PHX-SLC CR7. I was given $600 for what ended up being a 4 hour delay. I was trying to go home the day after the ASU/Georgia game... trust me, the Delta flights were complete chaos! They used 3 volunteers on my flight because Skywest had confirmed (positive space) a deadhead crew, which put the flight over by 3. That's why the agent gave us $600... Said Skywest should NOT be bumping DL pax to shuttle around crew Anyways, he booked me on a PHX-SLC-ATL-TUL routing, but then he learned that they had added an extra section to ATL that evening. I found out only after I left the podium that is was a CR7! UGH! In any event, I was able to standby on the CVG flight and got home 4 hours after I should have.

Other than that, I have tried and tried for a bump, but no luck...

Heard it a couple times last year. Problem is that the flights are so crowded that you usually have to wait until the next day to get a ride.