Wow, I was thinking the same thing the other day. First, its just not as much fun anymore. Since the inception of the DBC/Free tix, it usually seems like a major hassle to negotiate travel credits. With all the publicity the past few years, there always seem to be a pack of once a year family flyers that rush to the podium to take anything offered. This reduces the bargaining power enjoyed in the past.

Second, I don't get that "loving feeling" anymore when they take my seat. I used to be treated like a celebrity when I got a VDB, including meal vouchers, etc. Last time I asked for one, the agent looked at me like I was from another planet and flatly said they didn't offer such things anymore. This was after being bumped from a full dinner to full nothing flight.

Finally, there are so few options for rebooking now, I usually like to take the sure bet and go with my scheduled flight. VDB'ing ain't what it used to be.

You aren't the only one. I used stand right near the podium ready to swoop if they called for volunteers. However now it's just too big of a hassle so I generally don't bother unless they seem really desperate.

Are meal vouchers no longer offered as part of a bump now? What is the official policy? I got bumped on a flight from PIT to DEN last weekend, and I they could not reschedule me until the following day. I asked for a meal vouchers, and it took quite a bit of haggling with the gate agent to get both hotel and meal for taking the bump! I don't remember this being an issue before.

sfo-lax-phx departing at 8am. took a 1 hour bump on sfo-laxto 9am and still had almost 50 minutes at lax to grab my lax-phx flight-got the free tix (wouldn't budge for t/c's) and opped to f. now albeit it is a short flight the booking code on the re-booked flight was "f" so a few free cos eqm's are heading my way. nice start to the long w/e tho it doesn't look promising on the return phx-sfo as theodore's buckets on flight 1527 look wide open .

and yes, as long as the arilines will oversell a flight, i WILL put myself on the volunteer list

Anyone else also at the airport right now looking to be bumped?

Hmm. Well, not specifically looking for a bump, however; I'm in the LAX RCC right now and terminal 6 & 7 are a zoo!! Even the RCC is quite packed. My flight from LAX-DEN-EWR is zeroed out. We'll see if te bumpage offer is temping or not.

The alternative, which airlines have been taking a good look at, is having no refund, no exchange, restricted change tickets. Those would allow airlines to be less concerned about no-shows. However, B6 is looking at backing away from that policy because it discourages business travelers.

Hubbed airlines also have a bunch of no-shows due to mis-connects so that will not help them much either. Airlines perform detailed statistical analysis on the loads and balance the costs of VDB, IDB and unsold seats and come up with an estimate of how many no-shows they expect on a specific flight on a specific day. If they expect a lot of vacation passengers, they seem to reduce the overbooking because vacation passengers usually show up. It is business passengers that are most likely to be no-shows.

LGA turned into a bumpfest yesterday morning. They downsized the 9:00 departure causing them to be overbooked by 27!

I had checked in the day before on my way through LGA, and arrived at the RCC at about 7:30am. They looked at my BP and said something that sounded sort of like "bumpfest in progress." I love the LGA RCC crew, and joked with them about "shall I volunteer" to which the response was "not if you want to get home today." I had lost my seat, but they reprinted my BP with the new seat.

I went to the gate just before 8:30 and heard them say "we have one more opening on the 10:00 flight." Figuring that an hour delay was worth a free ticket I went toward the desk but someone slipped in front of me. They then proceeded with "we have five seats on the 11:00" but at that point I took a pass. While I was still waiting to board they filled those five slots and were working on the 12:00. While seated on the plane the GA came onboard and said we're looking for 5 more volunteers, but without saying which flight they were giving out seats for. One person actually volunteered, they then said "four more", but getting no takers they gave up and closed the door.

I'm just happy to be home. What did the four people who were involuntarily bumped get?

I flew 4 segments Thurs & Fri - all four of 'em were zeroed out completely in all cabins. However, none of them so much as called for volunteers. On one of the four, I would have been ideal candidate - probably could've rerouted and made it home only losing about an hour - but when I proactively offered myself up to the GA, she said "No thanks - we'll be okay." Sure enough, they were...

I was surprised...I was half-expecting the bumpfest.

What airline was this? Did UA fly to HVN before? Did that airline go from overselling every flight to HVN, to not being able to sell enough of 19 seats to be profitable?

Come over to AA, where $$$ vouchers are the ONLY compensatory instrument available.

Same on CO...$$$ vouchers that can be used on their website..but the $$$ amounts are nothing to write home about relative to the TCV equivalents when one can get one on UA. CO is so cheap, they squeek.

Now I would prefer the $$$ TCV but when used well, the free tickets ones can come in handy under special circumstances...namely holiday weekends or on routes that are way overpriced. (The lack of EQM/RDMs though is, of course, hard to swallow).

What are the usual CO amounts, out of curiosity?

I have been thinking this as well. When I was in college and in grad school, I'd kill for a bump so I could go somewhere on a road trip. I was on US a lot and seems like I got $$$ or the free tickets qualified for points b/c I managed to get Preferred Plus that way.

Last time I took a bump was a couple years ago from SFO-SEA during the holidays. Mrs. Dog and I took the bump and got on a flight an hour later and got the free tickets (didn't know about negotiating for vouchers). Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but those tickets have waaaaay too many restrictions for my travel plans... for one thing, I'm lucky to know 21 days in advance if I'm going to go somewhere.

I'm finding myself fighting more often than not to fly standby to get home earlier vs. the other way around.

This was on our 'beloved' United. Back then United flew several turboprops a day from IAD, and I believe there was one flight a day from ORD. It was actually a jet - probably a 737 or something like that. It certainly looked big next to the turboprops.

IIRC, US Air and Continental also flew there. Now it's just US and Pan Am.