SkiAdcock - To clarify, if you had taken the bump overnight, I think you deserved the free ticket or the $600 in travel credits per the rules. I don't think you or the other FTer were being overly demanding from what I read on the post. The profile clearly states that TC's or a free ticket can be issued and the other FTers was informing the GA of what is in the profile. I take the printed profile along with me when I travel.

Regarding my comments about deceit versus cluelessness. I agree with your take that some agents are just uninformed while others seem to take perverse pleasure in being duplicitous. It is unfortunate there are both, but the latter is particularly odious.

VPescado - Sounds like you had a crappy crew. Hope you pass that along to UA so they can notate that.

Ask for travel credit after you have been selected. Once I volunteered and mentioned that I wanted TC instead of the "free" ticket. I was told by the snooty agent "Yes the rules say you can get a TC, but there is no rule that tells me who I have to select." He selected someone who volunteered after me and gave them the "free" ticket, hotel and meal vouchers.

UA free ticket vouchers are actually a good deal if you need to take an expensive domestic flight. They are good on V, W, and Q fares.

1)Volunteer

2)Get VDBed :cool:

3)Watch plane push/jetbridge retract

4)Negotiate

Failing 4), 5)Send in unwanted free ticket to customer service.

Based on my prior experience:

The problem with 5 is that if you call MP CS, they will say, "Sorry". Even after calling back 5 times the answer is the same.

If you mail it in, without the phone call you can get a CS200 after a month or so, which is not as useful as a $200 VDB (one lump - use it or lose it, and not exempt from ticketing fees), nor is it as large as a $600 VDB.

The procedure is to take volunteers by status. If you were really irritated, I'd get the status of the person chosen (hopefully lower than your status) and agent's name and then kindly tell him so and that you'll be letting UA know of his performance.

FYI, the COC says:

In other words, even if a 1k is at the top of the list by the standard prioritization, the agent is not obligated to follow that list--s/he can choose whoever s/he wants.

Bottom line, I don't think it's worth pursuing with CS for a voucher.

OTOH, clarification on the free tix vs. TCs rules is definitely worth pursuing ;)

:confused: What, this in SEA?

Geez, from reading this forum I had started to drink the kool-aid and believe that the SEA station and its agents were God's gift to UA flyers :D :D :D

(even if my personal experiences told me it's a better-than-average hit-and-miss station).

Why does anyone think that UA must offer TCs for VOLUNTARY DBs?

If UA is offering a free ticket, and you are on the VDB list but don't want the free ticket, and someone lower on the list does take the free ticket, you are not entitled to some sort of compensation because you did not volunteer and accept the terms UA was offering. The terms are most definitely not anything like "negotiate with whoever is first on the VDB list and make that person happy."

You can either voluntarily accept what UA is offering, or you can try to convince them to offer you more. And if you get more, that's great, good for you. But if the GA doesn't offer you more and finds a way to avoid an IDB situation by other means, you're SOL and not entitled to diddly. Heck, you'd be SOL even if UA decides to go right past the TCs and into IDB'ing passengers - unless you were the one that got IDB'd, in which case IDB rules would apply.

As I said, you can try to get more, and that's great if you can successfully obtain TCs. But it's quite disingenuous - at best - to accept a VDB when the GA is offering only free tickets and after the plane leaves then pull out the profile and make a claim that you're entitled to TCs because "this piece of paper I'm holding says so, even though when I volunteered I had voluntarily accepted your offer of a free RT ticket to the 48 states".

CApreppie - you did not volunteer. Period. The terms were free ticket and you did not accept those terms.

Actually, there is no need to pull out the profile, as the VDB card one gets when volunteering clearly states that TCs are an option...

Do those cards also say that the passenger gets to pick which one UA will offer?

Here is what was printed on the last flight I put myself on the list for. I was not needed for the bump (no volunteers were needed) but the flight went out completely full I believe. Did get op-upped though :) :

This was printed out by the gate agent approximately half an hour before boarding started.

I guess I should jump back in here with the whole story...

Show up at EWR knowing there is zero availability (KVS). Went to check in with a human so I could get on VDB list, only counter agent was at ticketing chatting with another employee. Told to use Easy Checkin since "no one was available". No problem, check in and clear security.

Go to RCC and ask to be put on the VDB list. Get the standard VDB Bluey.

35 minutes before flight walk up to desk (skipping line) and hand my card/boarding pass to gate agent. They are dealing with oversold melt down and say they'll need my seat and have a seat.

After flight leaves, the conversation over TC vs ticket starts.

So while the discussion about accepting what UA offers is valid, in this case I hadn't accepted anything. Still waiting for responses from 1KVoice and the supervisor I talked to at EWR.

This time the complaint is valid - they're supposed to say what they're offering before VDB'ing you. 14CFR250 says "A “volunteer” is a person who responds to the carrier's request for volunteers and who willingly accepts the carriers’ offer of compensation". You didn't have any "offer of compensation" other than what you might have had printed out and handed to you. And if you didn't get anything UA messed up under 14CFR250.

But if the GA is saying "We'll give a free RT ticket to anywhere in the 48 states to anyone who volunteers to give up their seat", the free ticket is the "offer of compensation". If you can talk the GA into giving TCs before you accept the offer, great. I've tried and failed more than once. But to go back and try to get TCs after accepting the free ticket VDB is changing the deal after it's been done. Period. If you don't want the free ticket, don't accept the VDB when that's all that's offered and then whine about not getting TCs afterwards. That's not what UA said you'd get.

And in general "you are entitled to a travel credit or in select markets a free ticket voucher" doesn't say you get to pick which, and to me at least it implies that if UA "selects" your market you get a free ticket. That wording makes it sound like the free ticket is more valuable than the TCs. And for a non-frequent flyer it probably is.

I think that situation is coming down to hearsay. The compensation might have been announced while the person was in the RCC. Who knows ?