A weird first, but "The Speech" pulls through for an op/up
 

Last night I took the 412 DEN-BWI. When I checked in at the kiosk, the machine gave me the option of volunatarily giving up my seat for a free travel voucher. Never seen that before.

The bad news: full flight that was way overbooked.

The good news: "The Speech" worked! I went up and talked to the two very nice GAs as they were asking for volunteers to deplane and let them know that I was willing to volunteer... to move forward :) They were both very friendly and nice and told me that, as long as people say thank you, it's their personal policy to bump you up every time!! Fortunately, my thank you was coming out right as they told me their policy, so no trouble there!

Important note: They mentioned that nice pax during the holidays will ALWAYS get free upgrades from them because they are so used to grumpy pax who are delayed or whatever. SO, always remember to be polite and friendly with the GA's and your chances of an op/up will sky-rocket!!

Please tell more about the machine generated VDB bump offer! That's quite interesting and I've never heard of it, myself. What was offered? $200 travel voucher, $400, $600, ticket? Did EZ chicken mention which flight you'd be protected on?

The message I got was along the lines of "This flight is very full and we are looking for volunteers to take a later flight. You will be compensated with free travel. Press here to learn more and volunteer."

Then, at the gate, the GAs announced VDB Travel Vouchers for a free ticket anywhere in the continental US.

I asked around on the plane and no one on it had ever seen anything like it before either - and most of them hadn't even seen it on their way in...

I've had that offered to me a few months ago.

Never thought to post it on FT, as it didn't seem that big a deal that Mr. Chicken was offering a free domestic RT for VDB compensation. Now, if I could get him to offer $$ vouchers for VDB compensation, that would be newsworthy.

FWIW, I think the "volunteer for a later flight, get a free RT anywhere in the lower 48" is pretty worthless.

Can VDB vouchers be used to fly one's family members? Or must the volunteer fly with it himself?

Of course we status hounds don't want a free ticket that doesn't yield miles.

Why do you (and others) count "a free RT anywhere in the lower 48" (as) pretty worthless"? True, a "free" ticket will not earn miles and advance one toward status, but are there other negatives with the "free" ticket, for example that like a saver award there must be a seat available from a limited inventory? I do see some offers as worthless, like that of a free companion ticket if one first purchases the most expensive bucket in a given COS, but a free domestic coach ticket doesn't strike me as such. So, yes, $$$ vouchers or other upgrades might be more desirable, but are these "free" tickets always to be scorned as compensation?

It's a free ticket that doesn't earn miles & is not upgradable, and is booked in the lowest fare bucket. They can be transferred to anyone. As mentioned, the majority of us prefer free $$ vouchers vs the free ticket, but that's a matter of luck of the draw lately it seems. Cheers.

The biggest issue is the fare class that these book into. This makes them very restrictive. For people with very flexible travel plans, they are not bad, but the $$$ vouchers are simply much more flexible (and can be used for int'l travel IIRC).

My experience with the free ticket is that they book into typical fare classes like Q and V. Generally much more available than saver economy award seats.

I don't shun them at all - they work great flying the S.O. out for a visit. Used like that, they are worth far more than EQM's to me ;) Far less crazy than blowing 25k on a domestic award.

While I too prefer $$$ Travel Credits for VDB's over Free 48 vouchers...I don't mind flying on the occasional Free 48 ticket. There have been several times when fares were rather high and Saver Economy Awards were not available. Yet there was space in the W,V or Q's of the Free 48 voucher.

Holding a Free 48 is a nice option to have in your hip pocket, IMHO.

They've saved my bacon (and a whole lot of money) on more than a few occasions. For me, family or friends.

jcasner...Well Done! :)

While it's impossible to negotiate with a machine, it's good to know they're teaching Mr. Chicken new tricks everyday.

I got a VDB on this flight last week (week ago Sunday). At T-1hr I told the GA I wouold volunteer but she refused to put me on the list saying it wasnt oversold... but the kiosk said it was pretty much packed.

So, boarding time goes and they make the call... I rush up along with about 10 casual flyers waving their boarding passes between me and the GA. Luckily my premier status got me the priority. I also mentioned to his GA (different from the first one) I had asked earlier but he just said that "things changed...". I got the free tic voucher and got a flight 2 hrs later. It wasnt busy enough for the double bump ;)

Wonder if they need to add another BWI flight or bigger plane...

I doubt the EasyCheckin machine would have actually rebooked you; it was just adding you to the potential VDB volunteer list that the GAs would use when actually giving out VDBs if necessary. Due to misconnects, etc, it's always possible they'll squeeze everyone in.

I suggest a master Easy Chicken thread to track existing and new features
 

We really need to do this as the functionality has grown dramatically over the last year.

I don't know what it would have done, to be honest. I had to be at BWI last night since I had an 8am mtg this a.m. so I declined the offer. If my plans are more flexible in the future, I'll report back ;)