Statiscally speaking!
 

Is the Wed before Thanksgiving, Nov 21 (DCA-DTW-AMS) and the Sunday after Thanksgiving, Nov 25, (AMS-DTW-DCA) good (or even reasonable) bet for a bump across the Atlantic?

WHat about Nov 20 (Tuesday) for DCA-DTW-AMS?

Well let's put it this way: Thanksgiving weekend is when I always non-revved to Europe with my dad, 'cause we could pretty much pick our flights.

I've scored a bump on wed before thanksgiving on SFO-AMS a few years ago (got rerouted through LHR on virgin's upper class (wow!))...so maybe :)

These are some of the most heavily travelled days, more so for domestic. By Thanksgiving weekend did you mean Thursday outbound and Mgnday inbound?

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving was always almost impossible as a non-rev, and this was 25 years ago. Everybody's trying to get home. Thanksgiving day has almost empty planes.

Note that we're talking American thanksgiving here -- in other countries, it's just another day.

When I non-reved my whole family on a transcon, we left on Christmas Day and had no problems.

So, the days you're picking seem good for a vdb, but I'm not sure how that works TATL. It would sure be nice to pick up a handful of int'l bump vouchers. How much is it nowadays?

Dude, this is where the real bump-cash is at. How does a cool $750.00 sound? (and so was born another bump-runner off to book the worst possible days in hopes of that elusive bump payout!...or a horrible ride in a middle seat) I too was bitten by the bug earlyer this year.. I had a domestic $900 day and have been dreaming of bumps ever since!

Having done this very recently, I can tell you that to non-rev the day before Thanksgiving is, indeed, near impossible. Domestic. TATL, though, it's been a breeze. Everyone's going home to see family for the holidays, very few people are starting their vacations then.

You may want to add one or two more hops before you cross the Atlantic. That's where the full planes are. November is just about the lowest season for TATL.

I thimk your chances are fairly low on the Intl sector. Other than miles was there a reason you did not do the IAD to AMS flight? I used to live in Chantilly (right outside IAD) and when European friends would come they almost always needed Volunteers on that flight. Of course it was once per day and on the DC10. Now KLM flies it. Through DTW there is more than one flight per day so the passengers could be more spread out on the flights than all having to be on one.

Your challenge might actually be getting to DTW.

Miles, as well as the fact IAD is a lot further for us than DCA (say about 2.5 times further). I could do IAD one way but doing it both ways will have my wife and kids a couple of hundred miles short of Platt. Mixinf IAD and DCA doesn't work and IAD-DTW is not ideal either as you get stuck on a CRJ.

Did NW ever do AMS-IAD? KLM has been doing AMS-IAD as far back as I can remember. There was a time when KLM did BWI-AMS too, which I took a few times.

Yes, NW used to do the IAD-AMS route 1 x daily on a DC -10. I moved from that area in 1998 and NW was still operating it at that point (so 9 years ago). KLM used to do a once daily MEM-AMS route with NW doing one (or maybe 2 X daily MEM-AMS) and IIRC they switched those two routes to get the NWA bird to MEM and the KLM bird to IAD.

I've got TOL-DTW-AMS-BCN booked for that wednesday and monday returning. Didn't consider the bumpability until now though... too bad the parents are on a LH flight same way, can't leave them stranded in Barcelona.

Maybe I'll see Yaatri on the DTW-AMS leg though!

For real TATL bumpyness consider Friday the weekend before thanksgiving. Most people going international will take the full week off.