Explain Bumps to me
 

please :D

A bump is when you volunteer to take a later flight when you are on a plane that is overbooked. The usual Domestic "Bump" is $300.00 a hotel room if overnighting, a meal voucher ($10) and **sometimes** you will get put in FC for taking the "bump". If you are skilled at finding oversold flights you can rack up some big $$. I do not look for bumps but one lucky weekend I made $900, got a free hotel room, cab ride, dinner, and all in FC (I was there anyway though)

Airlines typically sell more tickets than they have seats on a flight, knowing that some people will not show up. When too many show-up, the airline has to convince someone to take another flight (VDB - voluntary denied boarding) or IDB (involuntary - which can really upset the last person to check-in for the flight). So, they offer a voucher (usually a couple of hundred dollars) good for another ticket in exchange for you taking a later flight. Depending on the delay, airlines may offer meal vouchers and/or a hotel room for the night.

For more info., search for 'bump' or 'voucher'.

So Bumps...
 

are not for couples celebrating their 12th wedding anniversary in Dec. (DTW to LAS)...

No, thats what FF miles are for :)

Well, currently
 

I have 4,498 and hubby has 300 separately with NWA (not a lot). We use emiles.com, so maybe this will change. Probably won't purchase our round trip tickets 'til October...

They will often offer a free RT ticket, but most of us prefer the $300 voucher because the free ticket comes out of W (award) inventory (which is harder to book) and you don't earn any FF miles on trips using the free RT voucher. If they offer one voucher and you want the other, ask (sometimes they'll give it to you - other times you only get the one they offered). I usually look for VDBs, by looking at the seat maps for the trips I'm planning on taking (to make a better guess) as well as looking on the days that are historically best in my experience (Fri. for into PHL and out of TPA, Sun. for into TPA). There are a lot of threads on the forums where FTers have discussed their strategies in getting VDBs.

I was able to type in the ticket number on the DB210 voucher (for a free ticket in W-class) and got it to take $250 off a flight, earned miles and everything. Don't know how common this is.. heard it mentioned once before in this forum.

That's always possible (and then the flights are booked into whatever class you purchase, earning the miles that class earns) and it does give you more flexibility, but I'd rather just get the $300 voucher when possible since my usual tickets are less than $300 unless I'm booking flights I need to take into a mini MR or booking an actual MR around other flights that I need to take.

Oh absolutely! I might forego a bump for an actual honeymoon....but for a mere 12th anniversary - no problem! :D