Hotels FAQ

Question:

My experience is they will arrange to get you to your final destination even if they have to oversell the new connecting flight to get you on it. (this means you could potentially get 2 involuntary bumps on the same day) It happened to me a few years ago over the xmas timeframe. The other little trick is that airlines often raise their initial compensation offers if they’re not getting enough volunteers on heavily oversold flights.  They may start with some minimal credit voucher and eventually up it to include free system wide round trips. (sometimes even international) – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – >I’ll be traveling over some days when I there may be a fairly good >chance of voluntarily bumping.  I know they usually make offers of >vouchers, upgrades, etc. for bumping and then get you on the next >possible flight.  What I want to know is, what if it is the first >leg of several flights … are you hosed if you don’t make your next >connection or do they help you all the way through.  As it stands, >I’m scheduled to be home by 10:30am, but could easily stand to get >home MUCH later then that for a couple of vouchers … so long as I >still GET home. >I should know this, but the only times I’ve not made my scheduled >flight have been some fairly exciting weather problems and a really >EPIC instance that involved oxygen bottles, a medical problem and >an engine malfunction.  Not quite the same as a voluntary bump. >Thanks for answering what is probably a REALLY dumb question. >– Kim

Response:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – > I’ll be traveling over some days when I there may be a fairly good > chance of voluntarily bumping.  I know they usually make offers of > vouchers, upgrades, etc. for bumping and then get you on the next > possible flight.  What I want to know is, what if it is the first > leg of several flights … are you hosed if you don’t make your next > connection or do they help you all the way through.  As it stands, > I’m scheduled to be home by 10:30am, but could easily stand to get > home MUCH later then that for a couple of vouchers … so long as I > still GET home. > I should know this, but the only times I’ve not made my scheduled > flight have been some fairly exciting weather problems and a really > EPIC instance that involved oxygen bottles, a medical problem and > an engine malfunction.  Not quite the same as a voluntary bump. > Thanks for answering what is probably a REALLY dumb question. > — Kim

As long as youre scheduled on the same airline all the way they should help you get to your final destination. When you inquire about the bump and alternate flights just be sure to let the agent know your final destination is….and when and how can you get there. In some cases, ie if you were originally making a connection, you may luck out and get on a nonstop or more direct routing that was open, but just sold out at the fare you happened to purchase. Good luck and happy bumping!

Response:

> I’ll be traveling over some days when I there may be a fairly good > chance of voluntarily bumping.  I know they usually make offers of > vouchers, upgrades, etc. for bumping and then get you on the next > possible flight.  What I want to know is, what if it is the first > leg of several flights … are you hosed if you don’t make your next > connection or do they help you all the way through.  As it stands, > I’m scheduled to be home by 10:30am, but could easily stand to get > home MUCH later then that for a couple of vouchers … so long as I > still GET home.

If you voluntarily get bumped, the airlines will do their best to get you to your final destination, but if you are stuck overnight somplace, don’t look for a free room or food vouchers. You usually can get them to authorize "destressed passenger rates" at a hotel, though. As to holding out for higher compensation, it they raise offer, everyone getting bumped gets the higher offer, not just the later volunteers.Kim

Response:

I’ll be traveling over some days when I there may be a fairly good chance of voluntarily bumping.  I know they usually make offers of vouchers, upgrades, etc. for bumping and then get you on the next possible flight.  What I want to know is, what if it is the first leg of several flights … are you hosed if you don’t make your next connection or do they help you all the way through.  As it stands, I’m scheduled to be home by 10:30am, but could easily stand to get home MUCH later then that for a couple of vouchers … so long as I still GET home. I should know this, but the only times I’ve not made my scheduled flight have been some fairly exciting weather problems and a really EPIC instance that involved oxygen bottles, a medical problem and an engine malfunction.  Not quite the same as a voluntary bump. Thanks for answering what is probably a REALLY dumb question. — Kim

Response:

> If you voluntarily get bumped, the airlines will do their best to get > you to your final destination, but if you are stuck overnight somplace, > don’t look for a free room or food vouchers. You usually can get them to > authorize "destressed passenger rates" at a hotel, though.

I have been voluntarily bumped off of the last American Airlines flight of the day to my destination from Dallas and was provided not only a complimentary room at the airport hotel, but a voucher for a free breakfast as well. Greg

Response:

                Greg says:                 "provided voucher for free breakfast                  too"… I remember when I was re-scheduled on a SVO flight on Aeroflot after missing my DL flight due to late take-off from Atlanta, (described in another post on r.t.a.), DL provided me with a voucher worth about $7 (in German marks) so I could get lunch somewhere in the Frankfurt airport. I don’t think they were obligated to do this, in fact I didn’t even think to ask for a voucher, but DL offered it anyway. And my wait was about 4 1/2 hours, not that bad, really, as I had intentions of getting lunch anyway, just paying for it out of my pocket. Nice gesture by DL, BTW, I had a ham sandwich (huge!) and a nice, cold beer. Thank you , Delta!

Response:

: My experience is they will arrange to get you to your final : destination even if they have to oversell the new connecting flight to : get you on it. (this means you could potentially get 2 involuntary : bumps on the same day) It happened to me a few years ago over the xmas : timeframe. It happened to me about a month ago at ORD.   Luckily I didn’t have to be anywhere, so I just sat there and collected the bumps.  One was voluntarily, one was involuntary.  I like ORD anyhow, so I had no complaints.   Regards, Steve Richardson Indiana University

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