chobby100

I'm sure some of us have had this happen. We are in (insert three letter city code here) and just really want to get home (or wherever). Tired, annoyed or whatever. They start to offer money and/or vouchers and you just don't do it, (hard concept I realize for many FT's). You just want to get home (or on w/vacation or whatever). Then a few hours later (or whenever) you say, boy that was really dumb.

Here's my story: It was 1981 and I was 11 years old. Well, my dad and I were traveling LGA-ROC and they started offering free tix. I tried and tried to get my dad to take these for us, (I guess it's always been in my blood). He said "no way, we're taking this flight". Well, as it turned out we sat on a really hot tarmac for over 2 hours waiting to take off and eventually we headed back to the gate and they cancelled the flight (sorry can't remember why, I was 11). To this day I still remind him and he has finally warmed to the idea, that we should have taken the tickets.

Arcolaio99

I have only had 2 chances and took both. Can't beat $300 and food for a trip from DTW-ALB. The other was soemthing like AMS-PSA (I think thats Pisa.) Food, hotel and cash. That always beats the voucher.

rkt10

I tried to get a bump recently and failed. I regret that.

I had a 40 minute gap in Atlanta between my arrival and departure. My departing flight was virtually full, and I planned to volunteer for the bump. Especially since the next flight was only an hour later. Unfortunately my incoming flight was delayed and I barely made the connection. By then they had managed all their bumps.

Ah well

Voyager27

My story took place in 2001, when I had flown from PVD to RIC on US for a job interview. I was scheduled to return from RIC at around 6PM. However, I found out that morning that the interview would only last until noon, so I called the corporate travel agent and had them place me on a 2PM departure. (I love super-flexible tix when you're not the one paying.) I arrived at the airport about 25 min prior to departure, and as soon as I checked in at the gate, they announced that they needed volunteers. I had half a mind to march right back up and have them put me on my original flight with a free ticket in hand, but decided against it, since I wanted to make it back to PVD to attend an event that evening. Ironically, the event ended up being postponed until the next week, making me kick myself even harder for not having taken the bump.

pinniped

Fortunately, I've never had one quite like that - where I passed up a sure-fire bump opportunity and then had the flight cancel anyway.

Usually, I know in advance whether I have time-flexibility and can therefore consider bump money. I remember a Sunday afternoon in DFW where I was enjoying watching football so much that I took two small bump vouchers ($200 and $250) to skip flights and watch games. Ordinarily I wouldn't consider trading my time for small vouchers, but I had found a good bartender and a big screen, so it was okay.

The only one I semi-regret not taking was JFK-LHR about 8 years ago. Flight was oversold and the bump money was up in the $750 range, plus hotel and a seat the next day. I had an exit row seat and just wanted to go to London, so that's what I did. But it crossed my mind that a night out in Manhattan would have been fun, and the bump voucher would have paid for another trip over to LHR and then some. But the next day's flights were also full, so I knew I probably wouldn't get exit row, and at the time I didn't have enough miles (or status) to finagle my way into J.

dlombard

I once had an early morning (6am) LAX-SJC run that I only took 'cause of the price because I really didn't have to be there until that afternoon. Well, this was right around when that route was just converted over to AE from AA back when they were in T-3, so these flights were being oversold quite a bit at first. I was practically being begged to take the voucher but I was too busy being pissed off about having gotten up with only 2hrs of sleep to get to the airport only to wait for a flight four hours away. Napping at the airport is an extraordinarily uncomfortable so I kinda stuck it out and this other guy decided to voluntarily bump.

After the nightmarish hell I went through after being in SJ, I totally regret not having taken that and as many more bumps as they needed me to take... Esp. since the voucher offered was like twice what I paid for the flight!

Argh.

------------------
Best regards,
Dairenn Lombard
Los Angeles, CA

Wiirachay

January 5, 1999

This was the day after the massive snowstorm in DTW, where NW had one hell of a day. This mess affected Asian operations as flights to Asia were cancelled and hence the day before, flights from MNL were cancelled, meaning that my flight was overbooked!

I was a sophomore (2nd year) college student at the time, heading back to school, after visiting relatives in the Philippines. The check-in agent offered me a $400 TCV, a free night at the Manila Hotel, and a flight out the next day. The agent mentioned that I'd probably have a good shot at getting a voucher the next day too.

I declined. Why? Because this was my first trip flying confirmed in oceanic J class, and I was all excited to fly in J, even though I flew in J going to MNL.

- Pat

JerryFF

Our family of 4 and my brother-in-law's family of 4 were traveling on UA from SFO to LIH. We had planned a week-long vacation on Kauai for nearly a year.

We all boarded the plane and they still needed 11 to get off. They offered 2 domestic roundtrips per person to get off and go the next day. They also offered to put us up at the Westin SFO.

We were so psyched for this trip we couldn't imagine not going until the next day, especially with 4 kids involved.

So we turned down 16 tickets (8 x 2). Our regrets really surfaced toward the end of the week in Kauai when we realized that a 6-day vacation would have been just fine.

AllanJ

Many years ago I turned down a bump returning home from Honolulu. THey offered one 48 state round trip ticket plus transportation back to Waikiki for a free hotel night. Also this was an HNL-LAX flight but the replacement flight was HNL-SFO with no further promises (I probably could have gotten my connecting flight LAX-BOS to be SFO-BOS with no trouble). I was coming down with a cold and, being paranoic about an earache upon descent if I did not get home quickly before the congestion started, I turned down the bump.

I regret turning down the bump especially since I would have stopped over in SFO for more sightseeing.

Travel tips:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/travel.htm

As far as not taking the bump, having your real flight delayed or cancelled with you on it, and getting to your destination after those who did take the bump got there, it could just as well have gone the other way, your replacement flight could have been the flight cancelled.

There is nothing you could have done and ergo there is nothing remaining to regret if your incoming flight pulls in late and all the bumps on your connecting flight have already been managed.


[This message has been edited by AllanJ (edited Jan 30, 2004).]

raffy

Many regrets on this chance last year.

On our return flight from LHR to SFO, our flight was full. UA offered $800 in vouchers per person and an upgrade to Business, we were in coach, for up to 20 passengers for the next flight. Though the next flight was not direct to SFO as it stopped in DC first, the idea of giving up $1600.00 in vouchers was too much, but alas, I could not convince my partner to do it as he had to be at work the next day.

civicmon

I was in PTY on Jan 4 and they needed 10 people to bump from PTY to MEX. I walked up and said that I can be re-routed to San Diego and not Tijuana and i'll do it.

So the guy come back says no, nothing into SAN but only TIJ. So I said no thanks. They did get their 10 passengers really quickly. Was a free night centro PTY, r/t taxi vouchers, $300 + cash for food.

SpaceBass

I have had two biggies...
The first was after a weekend visit to NYC. My now fiance was working at the UN for a short while and I flew up from RIC to vist her. I booked a nice room at the Plaza and we had a great weekend. Unfortunatly, the plaza was a disapointment, they woke us up both sat and sun at 8:00am to clean. I told them about it at check out and they said they'd have a manager call me.

The manager did call while I was waiting for my flight at LGA. He offered me a free weekend or to take a night and the food off of my stay. I don't care for NYC and didn't plan on going back, so I took the credit. 5 mins later they announced that the flight was olver sold and that they would bump 5 people and re-route them and get them home 2 hours later... plus you got a free ticket.
I got on the list, then took myself off.

Turns out that my orifnal flight was 3 hours delayed.

So- I could have gotten a free flight and a free weekend at the Plaza and turned both down... I'm still kicking myself for that.

#2 was coming back from Napa Valley last year. We could have been bumped and gotten an FC upgrade on the later flight, but turned it down b/c we wanted to get home. When we got home my dad- was traveling with my paretns and fiance- had left his lights on and it took close to 2 hours to get a jump. Funny enough, the later flight was just arriving as we left the airport.

Now- unless I'm traveling to a meeting or something else time sensitive- I make it a point to get on that list!

SAT Lawyer

That's where you say, "Adios, amigo. Enjoy your flight. I'll catch you tomorrow."

Blumie

In 1989, I was on an American Eagle BOS-JFK flight connecting to an AA JFK-ORY flight. The BOS-JFK flight was oversold to the point that they were offering $1,250 for volunteers. I was too nervous about making my connection, so I passed. (Of course, if I were smart, I would have taken the voucher, and had them put me on a BOS-LGA shuttle, and then cabbed it to JFK.) In any event, I got to JFK with time to spare, and then the JFK-ORY plane had mechanical problems, so I ended up being put up for the night by AA, and then flown out by TW the next morning. AA gave all passengers a $700 voucher for their trouble, which was nice, but had I taken the bump on top of that, I would have had almost $2,000 in vouchers.

bhatnasx

I had a flight earlier this month - it was BKK-NRT-LAX - UA had way oversold C for NRT-LAX (and I knew this because I checked the buckets before leaving - I had 16A on a 744). When I got to NRT, I went into the RCC and got in line. Talked to the desk agent & he told me that he would give me $300.00 CASH (not voucher, but US Dollars) if I downgraded to Y (middle seats were all that were available). I asked if I could be rebooked on a later flight in C, he said no - 300.00 & Y or nothing at all. I turned down his offer. In about an hour and a half, it was time to board - turned out C was a perfect sell (but it had a long waitlist!) - From my conversation with the guy, it seemed like he was ready to pay me the money & downgrade me in advance before boarding even started - in retrospect, I should have downgraded and gotten the 300.00 voucher - A middle Y seat can't be that bad.