Professional Bumpee?
 

Reading the post about the biggest denies boarding compensation, I starting thinking about making a serious go at becoming a "professional bumpee"
.
Has anyone ever tried this sort of thing?

I'm not saying I'm going to quit my job and do this for a living, perhaps just spending a month during the summer making reservations on very popular routes on various airlines and just hanging out at the gate. Might be a fun way to really stock up on vouchers, coupons, certs, free hotels, miles, upgrades...whatever!

I know I can come up with some pretty wild ideas, but has anyone else ever thought about this?

I have toyed with this idea extensively and have succesfully executed it over July 4 weekend and Thanksgiving weekend last, netting well in excess of $2000 in vouchers - which will fund most of my leisure travel for this year.

The key is to identify the flights with the most likelihood of overselling. I have a source within the airline who can check the actual overbooking profiles for me, so I have an advantage there. But it is not too hard to figure that the last flight on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving will be packed to the gills!

A lot of this depends on the humor of the staff doing the bumping too. At ATL, I am familiar to the NW and CO staff, so I usually get priority for the bump if I want it. However, some stations (like LAX) can be major pains in the butt about it.

So what are the key things you should look for if you don't have a source in the airline?
Friday night flights?
Leisure destinations?

Special events are definitely the key. Conventions, sporting events, etc.. are always good, especially if they are arranged alongside a long weekend or traditional holiday.

For example, last July 4 weekend, the Atlanta Braves had a four game series against the New York Mets in New York. The Friday afternoon flights between ATL and NYC that weekend had not only the regular business travelers, but also the folks flying up for the games and the folks taking a long weekend in NYC.

Flying thru DEN on New Year's Day my flight was apparently overbooked to the tune of $600 vouchers being offered. I raced over to the gate agent who informed me that because of my status (UA 1P), I moved to the top of the list! The fact that I was flying on an award ticket made no difference, she said, because status has privilege. I'd heard rumor of that before but could never confirm it.

Alas, my seat was not needed. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

What I usually do is try to schedule my return or outbound on a busy flight, that should they offer a bump won't affect my schedule. Typically I can pick up about $500-$1,000/month on United. Your status make s a big difference, because if multiple people offer, they approach you in the status order.

Also, if you taking a connecting flight that is always busy (i.e. Sacrmento SMF - DEN, DEN-DFW) Make sure there's a non-stop going there on another airline. Like AA's SMF-DFW. Last year, before I was 1K, I booked 3 flights to Dallas on a fare special UA had - +/- $500 r/t. The cheapest non-stop on AA was $1850. I would then look for the "bump" and get placed on the AA flight. I received $300 in compensation, still received credit for my UA flight AND received mileage credit on my AA flight.

I don't know about doing it "professionally" but if you can time it right - heck go for it.

My wife and I turned those vouchers into three first/biz class trips: New York, Hawaii and France - and with over 45K mileage plus miles from the trip for me and another 30K to her account, we can take ANOTHER award trip.

------------------
Ken in Sacramento

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

There's another thread on this from a month or two ago, you may find some information in that one too.

I use to do it, booked on two flights from Detroit to Boston on the 5 and 6 pm flights on Friday Afternoons. My girlfriend lived out there, so I flew out for the end of every week (my workweek then started on Saturday).

Both flights, bumpped every single week that summer, got $200 from each airline, money for food, and there was another flight in a couple of hours. At the time (it was a while ago) I made more on Fridays from getting bumpped then I did working.

I was just wondering whether all airlines (specifically Delta) also prioritize their "bump" list by elite status?

My wife has flown 2 times in the last year on AA. 1st time was with my daughter and they both got bumped on 12/23 COS-DFW and each got a $1,000 voucher plus meal plus hotel. 2nd time was DFW-COS and she took a bump and had to fly out 3 hours later and connect through LAX but got another $1,000 voucher. I was so proud of her, I could have cried! ( Airfare from SJC to HNL in July is pricing out at about $700 on AA, Should I book now or wait?)

Although I can't be certain, in my experiences with Delta, it's been first come, first served.

I've been bumped on Friday afternoon flights 2 of the last 3 weekends on United. The first was Chicago to Oakland, and the second was Columbus to Chicago (though the continuing Sacramento flight was sold out, too). In both cases I was rerouted on my original carrier, and arrived within 1-2 hours of my original flights (though they flew me to SFO instead of OAK). $400 vouchers for each. If anything, I may try to line up more of my flights to get me home on Friday afternoons.

In over 600,000 miles with Delta, I've never been bumped. I think the airlines make it a priority NOT to bump elites. I think most elites would rather/have to make the flight.

Opus17, you miss the point, no airline would ever put elites at the top of the list UNLESS THEY VOLUNTEERED! This thread, being about vol. bumbs, means these people are volunteering for the bump, so the question asked is, does an elite on XXYY Airline get priority for the bump when the elite volunteers... Perhaps they are an elite on a mileage run, or with time to spare, and would gladly spend a bit more time at teh airport to have the next personal trip, mileage run, etc, funded by the airline (plus there are many times when a bumped passenger may arrive earlier or within a few minutes of the original itinerary, e.g. connecting flights bumped to direct, etc).

RE topic of the thread, I don't think it is possible to do it for a living, I mean the airlines almost always give vouchers not cash, so unless you were selling the vouchers or selling the miles, there would be no cash in hand to eat once teh meal vouchers for the bumb were used. IT would be a great way to fund some expensive air tickets.

One other thing to consider is that if you're top tier on most airlines you can get a full "Y" fare on any flight with 24-72 hours notice. That means you can wait until the airlines as closed the flight, then book your seat.

The other advantage to doing this is that if the flight ends up not needing volunteers, you can cash in the ticket (even if you've already gotten the boarding pass) and get a refund.

At JFK, at least, DL does not prioritize voluntary bumps by status or even order of volunteering. Once a list has been assembled of volunteers, agents choose from it randomly. Factors include number of pax in party, final destination, and alternate transportation options. One agent told me, though, that even if all factors are even they will choose people from the top, bottom, and middle of list rather than starting at the top and working down. He cited security concerns, which I thought was a bit of a stretch.

Twice over the past year, I found that by being friendly with the agent, staying in close contact (without becoming annoying!), and *knowing* your options, you stand a pretty good chance to be chosen. On both occasions I presented the agent with an alternate itinerary; he was happy to save the time researching it and I got the flights I wanted - along with a $700 voucher each time.