United737522

So after 3 non-consecutive days in a week of voucher/bump running I was blacklisted from ever volunteering on a WN flight again.

What I did was buy one ticket, and luckily scored a voucher. Then I bought another with that voucher and kept my original for 2 chances the next day. I scored on both and got a few more in that day. By today, lets just say I won't be paying for air travel for a while.

I went for it again today, after all it is spring break and MCO is a goldmine. Basically I was pulled over by the sup and told I could not volunteer anymore and unless I actually planned on travelling, that she was going to cancel my trips. However, I get to keep what I have collected thus far. (Who's to say I would not have traveled given the chance. ;-) )

So basically a word of warning, if you are going to do a voucher run on WN, hit up some different airports so the sups don't get to know who you are.

curbcrusher

Wow! How much did you end up "earning?"

grain

there goes my profit sharing. lol

United737522

a little over $3500

curbcrusher

Pardon me while I pick up my jaw from the floor.

United737522

What's funny, is if I had the idea I got today earlier, I could have easily doubled that. I figured most of WN's flights go to several cities before reaching their final city. I was only booking MCO-SDF/AUS/PIT,etc. I found that if I booked it all the way through to its final city, it raises the one way ticket price dramatically. Thus, increasing your voucher amount. I am gonna see what I can do this weekend on AA/UA.

Palal

Whoa!

Now did they actually blacklist you or did they tell you that they blacklisted you?

Isn't the worst they could do is blacklist you at this airport? Or possibly just add info to your existing PNRs.

mfox

You should post your story to a blog with a title like "How to Earn over $1,000 a day from Southwest Airlines". It will probably make it to front page of Digg and then we'll have 1,000's of copy cats out there trying the same thing. Hilarity ensues.

lasnowgirl

OH MY GOODNESS!! Seriously, nice (few?) days work!! Too bad there will copycats...care to share more detail? Hahaha...Just Kidding!!

Jaimito Cartero

Buying one ticket and hoping for a bump is one thing, but I think this will cause WN to change their bump procedures, and perhaps not allowing you to credit your ticket to a future one.

I bought a couple PHX-DTW ticket on AA, and picked last weekend and this weekend to fly, for bumps. I could have even scored $300 last weekend, but didn't want to wait for my FC seat to open up the next day.

jedison

I wonder if they actually can do this. The denied boarding compensation is set by law, but perhaps that's just for involuntary. Anyway, they're the ones overbooking flights. What's it to them if the same person gets the compensation each time? If they don't want to hand out stuff they shouldn't be overbooking the flights, it's up to them to accept or not accept a reservation. Nobody put a gun to their head.

SAT Lawyer

Well-played. ^

Hayden

It seems odd that one of the supervisors (or perhaps the station manager?) would have talked with the passenger about this, as it could have been solved very simply by the supervisor talking with the GA and allowing the passenger to remain on the flight ("Thank you for volunteering, sir, but you can go ahead and stay on the flight."). Problem solved (well, from Southwest's perspective, at least ).

-Hayden

expert7700

I agree. But if the supervisor hadn't said anything , the passenger might have used the $3500 to buy 10-15 more tickets later that day or that afternoon. What if the first of those tickets could have resulted in a gate agent announcing "anyone except xyz can volunteer", xyz is the last one to be bumped due to the unfortunate occurrence of multiple bumps in the past few days. Then WN has 14 more tickets on their hands that need to be cancelled. By approaching the offender, the person is no longer going to book these unused tickets.

I'm sure it's 100% against southwest's contract of carriage to purchase multiple tickets that you don't intend to travel using.

SAPMAN

I always found SWA's bumping process wierd. Why offer the $200 plus the amount of the ticket. That encourages those with high price tix, vs. say those on Award flights. Why not offer a flat rate of, say, $250 if next flight arrives < 3 hr., $350 for 3-5 hr., $450 for 5+ hr. delay.

If SWA checked to see if OP (united) had an expensive tix, they probably could have chosen someone else. I do not think they need to take volunteers in order.