Have you ever been in the airport, at your gate most likely waiting to board only to hear an announcement over the intercom stating that your flight has been overbooked? I am almost certain you have because overbooked flights are a fact of life!!! But back to the point, the attendant goes on to ask if anyone would like to "volunteer" to give up their seat on the flight for some sort of compensation. Depending on the length of your travel, they may offer a voucher between $200 and $400; other times they offer a first class seat on the flight you're bumped too; or even a combination of both.
The question at hand... Is the "Voluntary Bump" worth it?
Ofcourse it all comes down to your individual situation, but if you can stand waiting around in the airport for an extra couple hours the "Voluntary Bump" may actually may be gratifying! (but ONLY for those with a flexible itinerary, time to waste and ultimately the willingness to sacrifice their travel plans for a possible weekend trip in puerto rico or first class flight to some random city they've been dying to visit.)
On the other hand, for all the play it safe, I'd rather not take the risk type of people the "Voluntary Bump" would never be worth it, but hey... to each it's own right?
What's funny to me is that their are some people that actually do this for a living, like making sure they're flight is overbooked and arriving at the airports with hopes of capitalizing on the "Voluntary Bump". They visit sites like www.seatcounter.com and actually research inventory management, (aka overbooking). These people know the markets with higher tendency of no-shows, they know the airports most likely to offer the best compensation, they mastered the system and they profit from it regularly.
So next time you have the "Voluntary Bump" option, it'll be up to you to make that nail-biting decision....
DEAL OR NO DEAL
Labels: deal or no deal
1 Comment:
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- GaloreNYC said...
May 19, 2008 at 2:04 PMIm Down For The Bump...Only If Theres A 100% Guarantee I Will Be On The Next Flight Out...And That Flight Has To Be In A Reasonable Time Frame As Well.
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