Would You Take A Bump For $4,000?

As you probably recall, United suffered a horrible incident earlier this year in which airport police dragged one of their passengers off a flight for refusing to give up his seat. The flight was oversold and, although he had already boarded, the airline decided that he was the passenger who would need to be involuntarily denied boarding since they had been unsuccessful in soliciting sufficient volunteers.

There was much discussion at the time. I argued that United should have offered more compensation to lure a passenger off the plane. In fact, I said that had I been on that flight, the whole fiasco never would have happened. (Because my travel is almost always flexible enough to take a later flight.)

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Shortly after the incident happened, Delta announced that they would increase the limit on their voluntary denied boarding compensation to $9,950. That way their gate agents would have the flexibility to cut a deal. Of course, that was just the maximum they could offer, but the same bidding process would still take place. In other words, no one necessarily expected them to actually ever need to offer that much, because presumably someone would take a lower offer first.

Many of us wondered whether the compensation would ever get close to that level. Well, now we know.

Delta pays a passenger $4,000 to take a later flight

Friday’s flight from Atlanta to South Bend, Indiana, was oversold. It turns out that there’s a little football game being played this weekend, and Notre Dame and Georgia and Bulldog fans are rather passionate. It’s the first time they’ll play the Golden Domers up north. Or just about any team up north for that matter. 

So when it was determined that the flight was oversold, the Delta agents started trying to solicit volunteers. The bidding hit $2,200.  Then $2,800. Then $3,000.

Now $3,000 https://t.co/oKga0uw8aZ

— Zach Klein (@ZachKleinWSB) September 8, 2017

Yet they still had no takers. Apparently this was one of those flights, much like the one with Dr. Dao on United, where they didn’t realize they were in an oversold situation until everyone had already boarded. It’s much easier to convince someone not to take a flight while they are standing in the terminal — once they are in their seat, they’re mentally already at their destination.

Finally the bid hit $4,000. At that point, one woman agreed to take her jackpot in exchange for a later flight.

We even get to meet the passenger who got that last seat when the woman volunteered.

Sold!!!
This kind lady volunteered to get bumped.. for a 7pm flight tonight to South Bend.. for $4,000…
Not one fan wanted to get in late pic.twitter.com/gCOwFpz2Hf

— Zach Klein (@ZachKleinWSB) September 8, 2017

Presumably, he could have taken the $4,000 himself.

Did she make it to the game?

The flight in question was scheduled to depart Atlanta at 9:45 AM.

Delta offering “$2200 for fans to take the next flight.. you can see a lot more Georgia games” pic.twitter.com/7cVRAlEwC8

— Zach Klein (@ZachKleinWSB) September 8, 2017

And her rebooked flight was supposedly at 7 PM the same day, never mind the fact that Delta didn’t have a 7 PM flight.

So the closest would have been either 5:48 PM or 8:02 PM. But either way, that was about 8-10 hour delay, which is certainly a while to spend in the Atlanta airport.

But then again, $4,000.

The crazy thing though is that the game isn’t actually until Saturday evening. So the alternate flight would still get her and any of the other potential volunteers there with plenty of time to spare. Heck, Delta could have even rebooked her for Saturday morning, and it would have been okay. Or to Chicago, Detroit, or Indianapolis where she could have rented a car. For $4,000 I might have driven all the way from Atlanta!

I followed — literally, every weekend — a college football team for three years when my brother-in-law played for Air Force. So I get the importance of the game, the cost of tickets (though ours were always comped), and all of that. But our thinking was that as long as we arrived sometime the night before, we were fine.

Given all of that, it’s really surprising that the bidding hit $4,000. I mean, good for her, but I’m surprised that somebody didn’t jump on the offer sooner, especially given that it wouldn’t mean missing the game. Then again, there’s a reason that Andrew pondered why don’t more people volunteer to be bumped earlier this week.

Hey @CRUSH_Design – you own Philip a drink – he’s the guy who got on the plane thanks to you (and Delta’s $4K offer) pic.twitter.com/YTTyHf2xj5

— Zach Klein (@ZachKleinWSB) September 8, 2017

Bottom line

I’m sort of fascinated by this story. I’ve been bumped dozens of times in my life, but I think my max compensation was $800, which I was pretty happy about. So this is obviously really impressive. It’s also interesting to see Delta’s policy in action. It’s one thing to announce a policy like this, but it’s certainly another to follow through with it in the heat of the moment. Good for her. Good for Delta.

But seriously, did everyone on this flight value their time at more than $400 per hour? 

Would you have taken $4000 if it meant being delayed 10 or so hours? 

(Tip of the hat to View from the Wing)