The $109 fare was a special deal to get people on Delta's new direct BOS-LAX flights. It was only good for the 7/13-14 on the outbound and good for a 7 day stay, I think.
I read about it here on this forum. I was surprised how easy it was to get the fare--especially since the flights ended up being so full.

I had a similar thing happen on the JFK-LAX Delta flight 3 weeks ago - $400 voucher and bumped to Business Elite. This was on a $209 webfare ticket. I was doing this as a mileage run for the transcontinental bonus, I accumulated almost 22,000 miles just for that trip!
Delta has been heavily promoting their BE transcon service from JFK & BOS to the west coast. For at least the last 6 weeks, JFK-LAX has been available for webfares over the weekend. Naturally, since I was able to go this weekend, they aren't offering iy. I think their promotion has paid off for them!

Jeff

Jeff,
How did you get 22,000 points for this trip? I got 13,400 including the transcon bonus, online booking bonus, Silver medallion bonus and class of service bonus. Just curious if I'm missing something.
Stephen

Don't forget, if you're bumped you don't HAVE to fly to get the miles.

My story: I was in Tampa going to Toronto. I booked last minute and booked AC nonstop late evening.

Unexpectedly a coworker was assigned to go along, who was a loyal AA customer. He booked TPA-MIA-YYZ.

I decided to join him last minute, so bought a tkt at the AA counter (it would have gotten in around 8 pm, rather than my nonstop arriving at 11 pm). AA counter wouldn't take my AC tkt (due to time constraints).

I head out to the gate, to find my co-worker waiting. Turns out they are 2 flights behind and he's sitting until they call his flight.

They call that flight a few mins later and after a little confusion, end up saying "we need volunteers for...." They didn't even have to get the rest out before I was in line.

I got $300 and walked promptly back to the ticket counter where my ticket was voided. Never even hit my credit card.

Bill, my coworker, always enjoys telling the story.

JL

When playing the bump game, which of the following flights during the day would you think you have the best chance of getting bumped, the first flight out on a given morning (i.e. 6:30 a.m.), or the 2nd one (7:45 a.m.)?

I fly LAX-SJC monday mornings at 6:30 a.m. which is pretty heavily frequented by business commuters and so I would imagine that the 6:30 flight has a better chance of being oversold b/c the 7:45 would get business travelers into SJC at too late of a time (~8:45 a.m.) to start their mornings after having to rent a car and then driving from the airport to thier offices or meetings. Does this reasoning hold true in other business commuter areas?

Anybody know how they determine the voucher amount they give? I ask because we were in LaGuardia picking up somebody at Delta (the Saturday of Memorial day at 7 am) and they were looking for volunteers to bump off the New York - Atlanta Flight. They would get you there at 2 instead of in the morning, and were offering $1,000 in vouchers.

Never heard that much before, and I wanted to pick up the cell phone, purchase a ticket, and then give it up for the money, but the wife wouldn't let me (and if I had you know they would have had their 10th volunteer just as I was reading the expiration date on the credit card).

The other surprizing thing, besides the $1,000 per person, is they couldn't get the people they needed.

cordelli:

They aren't going to sell you a ticket if the flight is so-oversold they are looking for volunteers, nice try.

JFK-LAX:
- 2475 flight miles
- 10000 BE transcon bonus
- 618 25% of fm bonus

LAX-JFK
- 2475 flight miles
- 6000 transcom bonus

delta-air.com
- 1000 online ticket purchase

My calculator says 22568 DL miles (plus another 313 AMEX MR points for each ticket).

Jeff

-

This may seem like an odd question, but do FFs with elite status get priotity bumping when they volunteer??

I can't speak for all airlines, but on CO, it answer is:

Sometimes

boomer, don't be too sure about that...I'm not sure if they cut off flights like that, plus imagine when a carrier xld an earlier flight and didn't get the res system updated. I've done it--as mentioned earlier here bought tkt (B-fare, if I recall) TPA-MIA-YYZ, went out to the satellite and not 10 minutes later was on the shuttle back to the main building $300 to the good.
jl

I have volunteered many a time for free vouchers but on a recent AA flight from SFO-JFK, I had upgraded using my electronic upgrade stickers when they announced a smaller plane would be substituted for the original one due to mechanical problems. I was called to the front desk and told that they didn't have as many seats in First Class and Business Class and needed to put me back in Coach but would give me $500 vouchers. I told them this was fine but should I have negotiated this?

I am a firm believer in the "volunteer/bump" system. My best results were earlier this year going from JFK to Brussels on DL. Coach was oversold, I volunteered and received the following: voucher for $1,000; upgrade on a Sabena flight to Business Class which left only 4 hours later; and upgrade to Business Class on my return flight from Brussels back to the US.

Is this a great country or what?

My experience is that Elite status generally helps keep you from being bumped when you don't want to be and especially on a FREE ticket obtained using miles and that it also helps you to get bump priority when you want to be - but there are clearly NO gaurantees!