goalie

Post your 2015 Voluntary Denied Boarding/Bump experiences in this thread and for reference, the 2014 thread can be found here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ua-2014-a.html

jjmoore

Looked like an ugly day at DEN yesterday... MANY delayed flights and missed connections... resulting in overbooked flights in the evening hours. I overheard announcements on several evening flights (mainly UAX) looking for people to give up seats. I flew DEN-FAT yesterday, which was wide open.... but arrived 2 hours late. Anyone out there experience a VDB at DEN yesterday?

fallschurch

SJU-CLE-DCA on Sunday 1/4/2015 two pax
VDB $600, free hotel, travel next day, $7 dinning voucher

Received email that I could change my flight if I had flexible plans. I did and I called, they couldn't confirm seats until Wednesday 1/7/2015 with no compensation. Decided to go to airport and try my luck.

They started with 0 compensation and only offered a free hotel night. After a while, I saw a direct flight for Sju-iad availability on 1/6/2014, Vdb was at $600, with hotel and dining vouchers. Took it and the last two seats on the direct flight.

So my cheap (and horrible) Sju-Cle-Dca became Sju-iad, with two wonderful warm days at the Caribe Hilton.

jjmoore

Nice way to start the year.... hoping to catch one or two of these VDB's this month.

optostar

Hi, I'm new to VDB (and pretty new to FT too), just checked in for my flight to CES, SFO-LAS going out tonight for 2 people and was offered $150 for possible VDB. A quick search on FT suggested that expressing interest did not mean commitment to being booted (please correct me if I'm wrong), so I selected Yes.

A couple n00b questions:

1. When the online check-in offers $150, is that per person? So if my husband and I both accept the offer, do we get $300?

2. From what I've read here, people have been negotiating better offers at the gate. If we already expressed interest at $150, can we still negotiate for a higher offer at the gate?

3. And just to be super duper sure, just because we expressed interest doesn't mean we have to accept it right? We don't want to be delayed by like 6 hours, for example, but an hour or so is acceptable to us for $150 per person.

Thanks for your help!! I wish there was a wiki for FAQs (is there one already?).

pmarrsouth

@optostar

1. yes. yes
2. yes
3. yes

optostar

Thanks!!!

goalie

By "accepting" the offer to VDB at check-ine, all you're doing is putting yourself on the VDB list. The $150 is pretty much the std offer at check-in and can be higher at the gate. Once you're on the list, you're not obligated to accept any offer unless you're comfortable with it and the alternative flight(s)* and yes, you can negotiate with the gate agent for more $ based on the amount of the layover, if you've been upgraded/in a premium cabin on your current flight and offered a flight with a lower cabin, meal vouchers, hotel vouchers if an overnight bump and if not in a premium cabin on your current flight, it never hurts to ask about first or business on the new flight(s)

*as to alternative flights, it always helps and makes the gate agent's job a bit easier if you have a list of possible routings (flight #'s and connecting cities) that work for you as it doesn't have to be the next non-stop flight

xinnuoz

Ah I was waiting for this thread to happen.

Got bumped Jan. 1 ORD-SEA on the trip HKG-ORD-SEA.
Checked EF and found the flight to be full. Came to gate T-1h and waited for GA to appear. As soon as GA1 showed up I asked if he needs volunteers. He says he needs 1. I asked him to route me through EWR the next day. I actually wanted to visit new york on this trip; I tried to change the ticket to go through EWR but the agent quoted $1600 fare difference so I gave up. GA2 came and they agreed to book me ORD-EWR on 1/1 and EWR-IAD-SEA on 1/3 (no direct EWR-SEA available. SEA-bound flights are all pretty full on that weekend.)
I waited at the gate until everyone boards. Then some guy A came up and said he doesn't have a seat assigned. GA2 saw A had a standby BP and refused, but A insisted he has a confirmed seat on this flight so GA2 eventually gave him a seat.
After boarding GA2 offered $400+1 night at Crowne Plaza EWR+2 $7 meal vouchers and the prenegotiated EWR routing.
Then they started to mess with SHARES to un-upgrade me and give my seat to the next upgrader. GA2 seems very nervous through out the process.
Then GA2 found out that A actually had a confirmed seat on this flight but A cancelled it and changed to the next flight, and A is actually standby. (GA2 repeating "that was dirty".) So it was not necessary to bump me. But GA2 assured me that my offer is still valid.
After 15 minutes or so the GAs finally fixed the manifest and after another 15 minutes they fixed my ticket and I was good to go. Both GAs are really nice and they definitely work toward the interest of customers .

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UA824 SFO-JFK 1/10

Got the message at OLCI that the flight was overbooked (in Y) and offering $300 voucher - isn't the norm for this sort of thing supposed to be $150 though?

Put my name on the list, but also what are the odds they'd allow me to rebook to LGA instead? (This is the last flight to JFK for the day and tomorrow's SFO-JFK flights all seem to be full as well if that counts for anything)

channa

Alternate airports in VDBs are usually not a problem.

Orion

My friend flew from IAD to BDL today for a $65 mileage run and just called me and said he had been bumped on his return for $200. He has a few hours to kill in the terminal. Nice way to start the new year. This was an up and back the same day.

LarryU

On an EWR to PDX flight on 1/7, the gate agents were offering $600 (later upped to $700) and rebooking on a UA flight to SEA, followed by an AS flight from SEA to PDX. As an added benefit, the volunteers were actually able to get to their destination more or less as planned. The original flight was diverted twice and arrived in PDX one full day later than planned.

rob_flies_ua

SFO-SAN today was offering $400 for rebooking 10 hours later.

Evrytania

I was travelling from NRT to IAD on United and they requested volunteers due to overbooking. They offered $500 voucher and 10,000 points.

I took the deal and got rerouted through ORD on ANA metal to arrive in ATL two hours later than original flight. ANA does have better video screens and free wine!

I'm wondering if I will still get Premier Qualifying Dollars since the ticket was reissued?

It's been a long time since I travelled so I was wondering if this was a good deal?