For the first time in many years, I was offered the opportunity to take an overnight bump off my confirmed airline flight in exchange for compensation. Turning it down was surprisingly bittersweet, flooding me with happy memories of yesteryear but also the realization that I am no longer a kid with an open schedule.
Missed VDB Opportunity: Are My Airline Bump Days Over?
Oh, the days of mileage running. How I fondly I miss them!
Back in the day (think 2005-2013), many a weekend was spent mileage running around the US. Back then, tickets were cheap, routing rules loose, and carriers more aggressively oversold flights. The result was that each weekend could, in a sense, pay for itself. Throw in four segments and one was likely to be full. Take a bump off that flight (called a voluntary denied boarding or VDB) and wind up with a $600 voucher in your pocket to pay for the next couple trips.
Ben from One Mile At A Time and I spent many weekends bouncing from city to city, almost always in the front cabin (the longstanding Ontario – Tampa United fare, for those who remember, was a personal favorite). Mileage running is how I got into this whole world of miles and points and what led to Live And Let’s Fly.
But over the last several years, revenue management software appears to have become smarter (or revenue managers more conservative) because I honestly cannot recall the last time I encountered an oversold flight that actually needed volunteers. Certainly nothing since the pandemic in 2020.
Last night, though, two volunteers were needed. For my own privacy, I’m not mentioning the city pairs, but I was traveling on a connection from a major hub on a regional jet to a spoke city.
The asking price for a bump was a $600 voucher to go first class the following day plus hotel and meal vouchers (humorously, that amount has not been adjusted for inflation over the last decade unlike everything else…).
In my youth, I would have jumped on that in a heartbeat. These overnight bumps used to bring me such great joy. The adrenaline that came through playing the mileage run game was as much fun as flying itself. And if I missed class or a day of work, it was really no big deal…it did not matter.
Well, I’m not a kid any more. I still jumped up when the agent announced a need for volunteers, almost by instinct, but then she told me that she could not confirm me out until late this afternoon. There were earlier flights, but they were currently full.
While I toyed with the idea of taking the bump and standing by for the morning flight that would still leave me time for my appointment, it was just too risky. This trip isn’t a game and I could not risk failing to meet my obligation.
So with a heavy heart, I turned it down.
CONCLUSION
I suspect I am not the only ex-mileage runner who still gets excited when he hears about a voluntary denied boarding opportunity, but has had to turn it down because of family or work obligations. It’s a part of growing up, I guess…
Hopefully I won’t have to wait another five years for my next chance to bump!
I’m ready to read the book on your younger years. Sounds fun. book in development? Maybe ChatGPT can crawl your articles and write the first draft. ‘Write me a biography on Matthew Klint using articles from liveandletsfly.com’. And/or self-publish and require preordering if you want to make it even easier. I’ve got my reading glasses ready.
I’m in the opposite situation where I’m still looking for these as they occur. But with American they often offer them, but they seldom (never) need them by the time of boarding.
As I see the standby list fill up with seats, I wonder if AA offers these in advance if there are high valued customers they want to provide seats to, instead of basic overbooking?
How about the rush when you get upgraded? I can’t remember the last time I was able to redeem a Plus Point. I’ve gotten to the stage where I’ve used them on domestic flights < 500 miles just because the cache I have will expire if they're not used.
Interestingly I have been cleared using plus points the last three times with no problem. And long before my flight. One even cleared a week ago for a London flight in July. It seems to be improving as there are less 1K’s.
I seemed to get offered it on the App every flight with UA these days. Was offered it in London last week to IAD and actually went ahead and put in my mileage requirement for the flight the next morning. It didn’t clear. Of course, I always put an absurd amount of miles. If they are going to want me to spend the night I want a fantastic return. I put in 80,000 miles, lol.
80k costs them nothing. I’d ask for 120k instead.
They never accept my 80K when I ask. My rationale is that it’s a free J to Europe one way. Clearly though that’s more than they want to give since I’ve done it a number of times and it’s never accepted.
My days of doing that are so over!! Once you have wife and kids they become your top priority. I will take a downgrade to get home earlier which I did so many times by getting to an airport after a meeting that ended earlier and seen an earlier flight home. Oh, but I am on first class on my flight but I am happy to take a middle seat on an earlier flight if that gets me home earlier.
Thank goodness all this rubbish of mileage runs and overnight bumps with absurd amounts of compensation are over…..for the most part. What a rip of the system you guys did. Am so happy you can’t be the sheisters you used to be.
Yes, because we should all be so concerned with United continuing to make hundreds of millions in profit while underpaying their employees and providing objectively terrible service and catering on a consistent basis….
this ^
got bigger problems, see next story
No guilt over your HUGE carbon footprint destroying the planet?
The flights were scheduled anyway
@JorgeGeorge Paez: NOPE.
Good for you!
I am shocked Matthew didn’t post about it, especially given there is going to be something from LAX, I’ve been waiting for a post all day, but does anyone have any predictions on what new routes are going to be announced tomorrow for UA?
I’d say the top 3 being speculated are LAX-AKL, LAX-CHC, LAX-BNE.
You just weren’t patient enough! 😉
https://liveandletsfly.com/united-airlines-2023-new-route-teaser/
We were offered $1,500 each (3 of us) and guaranteed first class seat home from vacation a couple of months back and my husband said “no” as us getting back to real life was more important. I am still not over it……
Wow! I wouldn’t be either lol
I miss the United tulip logo….Saul Bass design greatness
Thanks for posting the old volunteer screen
I was thinking the same thing. Everything looks so much cleaner on that screen vs. what they do now. So easy to read what’s important and is designed so much better. The current United branding is a cluster-f.
Great post, I have similar memories from the ’90s of flights frequently being oversold and actually needing volunteers. I usually traveled alone which seemed to help because they may only have needed a few seats to free up and it was easier to rebook solo travelers than couples or families. I agree that this happens much much less frequently now and the last time it did, my first thought was not “score! free hotel and a travel voucher!” but “I want to sleep in my own bed tonight and I’m already tired, so no thanks”.
One thing I love about the points and miles hobby is that it is constantly evolving. The strategies that worked back in the day are no longer viable, but there are always new opportunities to leverage value. I’ll leave it up to others to figure out what they are 🙂