An American Airlines passenger says he walked away with a $3,600 travel voucher after volunteering to take a later flight from Miami to Barcelona. That is the sort of bump offer that reminds me of the good old days.
American Airlines Passenger Scores $3,600 Voucher To Take A Bump To Barcelona
Airlines are so much smarter these days when it comes to inventory management, but once in a while there are still oversell situations. A passenger shared on reddit that he was traveling with his wife and grandson on American Airlines flight 112 from Miami (MIA) to Barcelona (BCN) when the gate agent began looking for volunteers.
The offer kept climbing higher and higher until it reached a point where it was simply too good to pass up.
“Finally it got high enough that it was insane not to take it, so I took it. My wife and grandson went on to Barcelona and I’m flying today instead of yesterday but I am $3,600 richer.”
Not bad at all.
According to the passenger, there was a family of four traveling together, but only three had seats. The gate agent needed one volunteer so the fourth family member could be accommodated. Otherwise, the entire family may have been denied boarding.
That is exactly the kind of situation where an airline has an incentive to keep raising the offer until someone bites. And in this case, someone did.
The passenger later clarified that the $3,600 was a voucher, not cash, and that the cash offer was lower. Still, if you fly American Airlines often enough, a $3,600 voucher is almost as good as cash. He also said American provided a hotel night and meal money, which makes the deal even better.
I love these stories because they show that voluntary bumping can still be lucrative, sort of an old school quirk in the airline industry that reminds me of flying in the 2000s. Airlines have become much better at managing loads and soliciting volunteers earlier in the process, which means we do not see these sky-high airport offers as often as we used to. But when a flight is oversold and the airline needs one seat badly enough, the price can still rise very quickly.
There is also an art to this. Jump too early and you may leave money on the table. Wait too long and someone else may grab the offer before you do (I tend to jump…). In this case, $3,600 for delaying an international trip by one day was a very nice outcome.
CONCLUSION
An American Airlines passenger walked away with a $3,600 voucher, hotel, and meal money after volunteering to take a later flight from Miami to Barcelona. His wife and grandson went ahead, he followed the next day, and a family of four was able to travel together.
That is about as close to a win-win as bumping gets. Even if it meant one less vacation day with his family, it potentially bankrolled his next family holiday.
I am traveling a bit this summer and while I haven’t been offered a bump in years, oh how I miss those days of my youth when I could essentially support my travel by volunteering on overbooked flights, I’m hoping one day to run into a situation like this myself…
image: American Airlines
What a conundrum. I’d pay $3,600 to not have to go to Barcelona, but I’d also pay $3,600 to not have to spend an extra night in Miami. He should have held out for more!
JK. What a deal. Good for that guy.
Back in the early 90’s I was traveling with my wife and kids (5 of us) from LAX to HNL. There had been and equipment change and they needed several volunteers to give up their seats. There were offering $1,200 cash to go on the next flight. $1,200 back in the day was worth about $3,000 in today’s money. I was so ready to take us all off the flight and go later. I asked the gate agent about the details and he said it would “maybe” be the next flight as it was a space available / standby situation. Dang… 5 of us. No chance. M, alone. Definitely.
Can you disclose where you are going this summer?
Still in planning, but certainly Germany.
Impossible to turn down IF the next day’s flight was first or business class. Coach? Forget it.
Don’t fall for the voucher offers. The vouchers almost always turn out to be very restricted in terms of times, dates, and routes. I personally have received several and they all expired before I could find a use for them. Either they could only be used on certain dates and times (mostly redeyes) or they were restricted from being used on good routes. You may think you are $3,600 richer, but the airline has actually only given you the sleeves from their vest. The vouchers are only good for seats that would otherwise have been empty.
But now that “elite” travelers are having to pay more for their tickets due to surveillance pricing, something is going to have to give. The airlines simply cannot continue to steal the pennies from the eyes of the dead because they have a contract of carriage that says they can.
Yes my wife and I got $2400 each for volunteering to miss two flights in a row LGA CLT one Sunday before Christmas.
$4800 covered flights to Europe and NZ and all the SWUs cleared. BEST DEAL EVER