Yesterday I blogged about a LA Times story bemoaning the fact that more passengers are being bumped off of flights.
Just an hour after posting, I got a bump of my own. My Sunday evening IAD-PHL flight was zeroed out, but I wasn’t expecting to be bumped (based on past flights that had been zeroed out and departed with a dozen empty seats) and did not even present myself to the gate agent before the flight. For those of you familiar with the A Terminal at Dulles, you know that 4-5 flights depart out of the same gate simultaneously and UA is chronically understaffed.
Last night there was only one gate agent loading all those flights so I did not want to bother him with my trivial bump request when he was in the midst of boarding flights to St. Louis, Charleston, Buffalo, and Savannah.
Finally the PHL flight was called and as I handed him my boarding pass I asked if he needed any volunteers. "Yes," he said and motioned for me to step behind him.
It turned out there were already two people who had volunteered to give up their seats and they soon joined me behind the podium. About ten minutes later, a final call was made for boarding and there was still one seat open. I feared that even though VDBs are suppoed to be processed based on status, I would be forced to get on the flight since I volunteered last.
But the agent knew what he was doing and told a General Member standing next to me that she would have to board. He had more flights to board so he told me and the other bumped passenger to take a seat and he would deal with us in a few minutes.
40 minutes dragged by (time that I would have liked to use to return to the LH Lounge for a light dinner), but he finally got around to us and had no qualms about issuing me $400 in travel credits instead of a round-trip voucher.
I got into PHL about four hours late, but it was worth it. Always ask about bumps. You never know.
Hey Matthew,
Thanks for these wonderful posts and reports. I had a luggage issue with UA over the weekend, and they sent me the “customer appreciation” email, which surprisingly gave me the option of a $600 domestic e-cert, 50% of Y economy global itinerary, or 30K miles. (Over the phone, I was told that I would get a $250 e-cert, but it must’ve been bumped up due to my 1K status.) I thought this was very generous. Which would you have taken?
@David: Wow. That’s a very generous offer from UA. Usually 1Ks get a $250 e-voucher or 10K miles for luggage complaints.
I would choose the $600 voucher because that gives you more opportunities to get more vouchers if you use it to purchase three ~$200 trips, but if you are short on miles and are considering an international award, 30K miles often means the difference between Business and First. Also, if you are thinking of a trip to SYD in W-class (for example), I would take the 50% off voucher–upgradeable fares have been running over $2200 from the West Coast lately.
Think about where you want to travel to and make your choice based on which option will potentially benefit you the most.