It’s common for airlines to oversell flights, and in some cases, they then need to find people to take alternative flights. Airlines first need to solicit volunteers, and they’ll typically offer some sort of travel credit or voucher to get people to agree to volunteer. When an airline simply solicits volunteers, I’d consider it to be a win-win, since everyone is happy with the arrangement.
However, Elliott Report has the story of a voluntary denied boarding that turned sour, and I can understand the customer’s frustration…
In this post:
Delta backtracks on denied boarding compensation
A Delta Gold Medallion member was traveling from Salt Lake City (SLC) to Palm Springs (PSP) with his wife and infant daughter. Once onboard the aircraft, an announcement was made that one volunteer was needed — the announcement was allegedly that “Delta is looking for one volunteer to give up their seat in exchange for $15,000.”
The man immediately pressed his call button, confirmed the amount being offered twice (the flight attendant even reportedly checked with a gate agent), and then disembarked, leaving his wife and infant onboard.
But by the time the aircraft pushed back and started taxiing (without him onboard), the gate agent and supervisor informed him that the offer was actually for $1,500. The passenger claims he was accused of lying about the $15,000 promise, as the ground staff acted as if he made that up.
As the traveler explains, “they treated me like I’d invented the number out of thin air, but the flight attendant, the captain, and even Delta’s own emails later admitted the $15,000 offer was real.”
When he protested at the airport, he was told to file a complaint and contact customer service, but says he “felt humiliated” — “I’d just abandoned my wife and baby based on Delta’s word, now they were gaslighting me.”
In email communication after the fact, the airline acknowledged that the $15,000 number was “unintentionally” shared, but refused to honor it.
Also in email communication, the airline claimed that onboard announcements are recorded, and promised a resolution (which is a strange claim, because onboard announcements definitely aren’t recorded in that way). However, weeks later Delta came back with its best offer — the $1,500 in vouchers already offered, plus 20,000 SkyMiles.
As the email from Delta explained, “we kindly ask that you accept our decision and refrain from further requests,” and “please be advised our answer will remain the same and continued requests will not yield a different outcome.”
My take on this Delta denied boarding frustration
I can completely understand this passenger’s frustration. I’m sure the couple made the decision to split up because of the $15,000 offer, while they may not have done so for $1,500. And it’s especially unfortunate that by the time the passenger learned about the real amount, the plane was already gone, and the mistake couldn’t be undone.
In recent years, we’ve seen reports of some absolutely massive voluntary denied boarding compensation amounts, particularly at Delta. I’ve seen the numbers go as high as $10,000, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard of an amount higher than that.
I would’ve certainly been skeptical about the $15,000 amount. At the same time, if you actually double check with staff and they insist that it’s correct, then it seems like you did your due diligence, and should expect the airline to honor its commitment.
Certainly the right thing to do here would be to honor the amount promised, especially since Delta acknowledged that $15,000 amount was “unintentionally” shared. Presumably there would be a legal case for pursuing the amount that was promised. But whether that’s actually worth doing is a different story.
Bottom line
A Delta flight from Salt Lake City to Palm Springs was overbooked, and the airline needed one volunteer. The flight attendant reportedly announced an offer for $15,000, which a husband and father immediately took advantage of, after verifying that the amount was correct, leaving his wife and infant behind.
However, once in the terminal, after the aircraft departed, the gate agents informed him that the offer was $1,500, rather than $15,000. Initially they reportedly gaslighted him and pretended that amount was never offered, but in subsequent communication, the airline acknowledged that the amount was “unintentionally” shared.
Delta was unwilling to honor the offer, but did end up throwing in an extra 20,000 Delta SkyMiles.
What do you make of this Delta denied boarding situation?
Not surprising at all coming from Delta... all you need to know is in its airline code, DL = Despicable Liar
Similar thing happened to me on a United flight. At the gate in SLC, they offered multiple times for someone in Econ+ aisle to move to a middle seat in the back of the bus. When it got to $3k, my daughter said she'd move since she had an Econ+ seat on the aisle (we were all sitting together as a family). We had our seats booked for months. So we went to the gate...
Similar thing happened to me on a United flight. At the gate in SLC, they offered multiple times for someone in Econ+ aisle to move to a middle seat in the back of the bus. When it got to $3k, my daughter said she'd move since she had an Econ+ seat on the aisle (we were all sitting together as a family). We had our seats booked for months. So we went to the gate agent, and she agreed to move my daughter. My wife was taking care of the details, and I boarded with the kids given I was carrying all the ski gear. My wife gets on, and she said the gate agent was going to work on giving us the voucher and they'd email it, but the flight needed to depart. I was very suspicious, but they closed the door. Sure enough, no email. No voucher. I emailed customer support, United said they would never have offered us that much money to move seats, even though they did. Round and round I went with the 1K line at United, until I finally emailed the Scott Kirby. They did an investigation, the SLC gate agent admitted she offered the $3k, and they relented and gave me the voucher. Morale of the story, stand your ground at the gate until you get what they offered. And don't take the first "no" for an answer.
FYI, the reason they needed the Econ+ seat was for an Air Marshall. In all my years of flying, I've never seen an offer to move seats for money.
you can't say stuff like this.
Anecdotal mistakes and gate agent deviation from policy when the clear attempt by some is to paint w/ broad brush generalizations.
The simple fact is that DL does the best job of converting potentially invol DBs into high value voluntary DBs of any US airline and probably any in the world.
UA learned its lesson after Dr. Dao and is well below industry average but not as "perfect" as...
you can't say stuff like this.
Anecdotal mistakes and gate agent deviation from policy when the clear attempt by some is to paint w/ broad brush generalizations.
The simple fact is that DL does the best job of converting potentially invol DBs into high value voluntary DBs of any US airline and probably any in the world.
UA learned its lesson after Dr. Dao and is well below industry average but not as "perfect" as DL.
and the real gaslighting in the airline industry for 2025 was Scott Kirby to about 40K of his employees by telling them how valuable they are to the company but failing over and over to deliver new contracts to them. That wasn't an anecdote but a well-defined strategy to take advantage of tens of thousands of people even while touting how great UA's strategies are - even while saving hundreds of millions of dollars per year in labor costs compared to AA, DL and WN.
thanks for being honest and highlighting that humans make mistakes at any company.
other people can wonder why I go for the jugular about companies when they make personal attacks which simply who wears what on their shirt sleeves
As we all know, Delta is the single and only perfect airline in the world. Therefore this is okay by me.
Absolutely Dunce, DL leads the U.S. pack of low class airlines according to all respectable customer satisfaction surveys, yes?
This being the holiday season, perhaps all commenters on this site should resolve for the new year not to attack Tim Dunn, the person, and limit ourselves to his opinions. The "Timothy "The Dunce" Dunn" naming is fit only for trash sites--or Presidential ones.
Thanks Tim for the input!
Perhaps if Kathy's (very creative) nickname is no good, let's use "Liddle Delta Dunn". Thoughts?
Oh look, the Dunce himself slinks in under a thin alias to preach about "civility" during the holiday season – how utterly predictable and pathetic. Spare us the sanctimonious drivel, Timothy. You've spent years flooding forums with endless walls of biased, debunked Delta fanboy nonsense, derailing every thread into your personal soapbox, and now you're clutching pearls over a harmless nickname?
If "Timothy 'The Dunce' Dunn" stings so much, maybe reflect on why the entire...
Oh look, the Dunce himself slinks in under a thin alias to preach about "civility" during the holiday season – how utterly predictable and pathetic. Spare us the sanctimonious drivel, Timothy. You've spent years flooding forums with endless walls of biased, debunked Delta fanboy nonsense, derailing every thread into your personal soapbox, and now you're clutching pearls over a harmless nickname?
If "Timothy 'The Dunce' Dunn" stings so much, maybe reflect on why the entire community slapped it on you in the first place: because your "opinions" are routinely clownish, data-free rants that make everyone roll their eyes. Attacking the person? Nah, we're just calling it like we see it – and the shoe fits perfectly.
This site isn't your safe space. If you can't handle the heat from years of being the forum's resident troll, log off and take your holiday resolutions elsewhere. The rest of us will keep mocking the Dunce as he deserves.
(Alos a quick tie-back: Speaking of overpriced delusions, at least Peninsula Manila delivers real luxury for $150–250/night – unlike whatever fantasy world the Dunce lives in...)
How's airliners.net ban treating you too by the way, Timothy??
Oh and yes, The Dunce was indeed banned from airliners.net years ago.
He posted there for a long time under the username "WorldTraveler" (and apparently tried sockpuppet accounts like "atl100million" after the ban). The aviation forum community got fed up with his obsessive, repetitive, data-twisting rants and the mods finally showed him the door.
That's why he migrated to spamming comment sections on sites like One Mile at a Time, View from the Wing, Cranky...
Oh and yes, The Dunce was indeed banned from airliners.net years ago.
He posted there for a long time under the username "WorldTraveler" (and apparently tried sockpuppet accounts like "atl100million" after the ban). The aviation forum community got fed up with his obsessive, repetitive, data-twisting rants and the mods finally showed him the door.
That's why he migrated to spamming comment sections on sites like One Mile at a Time, View from the Wing, Cranky Flier, and anywhere else that'll let him derail threads into his personal Delta shrine. The ban is legendary in those circles - even FlyerTalk and other blogs openly reference it when calling out his behavior.
Poor Dunce - banned from the big aviation playground, now reduced to preaching civility under aliases while clutching his pearls. Classic.
have a sex change, Max?
You can change your name but you can't hide that you are driven by the same rage that has defined you for years - a sheer hate that someone can talk about the issues in the airline industry and you cannot.
As usual, you and a half dozen other people cycle through an endless supply of fake user names - Max fraud-to engage in personal attacks because you can't debate...
have a sex change, Max?
You can change your name but you can't hide that you are driven by the same rage that has defined you for years - a sheer hate that someone can talk about the issues in the airline industry and you cannot.
As usual, you and a half dozen other people cycle through an endless supply of fake user names - Max fraud-to engage in personal attacks because you can't debate the topic.
The issue is whether this event occurred as recounted and if there is any proof, not hearsay, that supports that $15k, not $1500 should have been paid.
And the larger issue is not that anyone can find an anecdote of a failure in an industry that serves 1 billion customers/year just in the US.
Delta does have by far the best track record in the US airline industry - and probably the world - in converting invol DBs into vol DBs even though they run the highest LFs.
If you can focus your hateful little mind on that topic and debate it, we could all be grateful.
and it is an honor to not engage in the childish and endless arguments that define a.net. There are a few people that post data that are worth following even though a.net moderation has succeeded in driving some of the better contributors off the site
Ben does a great job of distilling down the stories that matter and allowing discussion on here.
and it is noteworthy that your comments that you make here would never be allowed on a.net so it is beyond hypocritical for you to talk about how great it is to participate on a.net compared to other sites.
and a.net does not get the most internet traffic among aviation chat sites.
seems like a pretty straightforward small claims case. luckily for this gentleman, the small claims limit in utah is 15k. if i were him, i would be filing ASAP. not much to lose.
someone(s) just might need a refresher course in math and how decimals work but, just a reminder that DL consistently runs a 0.0% ratio of involuntary denied boardings while boarding the second most passengers according to DOT data. AA boards about 7% more passengers but they usually are in the bottom tier of US airlines in invol DBs.
When you consider that DL typically has one of the highest LFs of the big 4...
someone(s) just might need a refresher course in math and how decimals work but, just a reminder that DL consistently runs a 0.0% ratio of involuntary denied boardings while boarding the second most passengers according to DOT data. AA boards about 7% more passengers but they usually are in the bottom tier of US airlines in invol DBs.
When you consider that DL typically has one of the highest LFs of the big 4 and also has the highest number of voluntary DBs, they do an incredible job of converting DBs in order to not become involuntary and make a lot of people rich in the process.
It is fairly public knowledge that DL's cap is $10,000 which is way more than other airlines will offer - not as if that guy is supposed to know that.
I'll leave the two parties to claim what evidence they have to prove their claims; chances are it will come down to hearsay which is a pretty thin basis for winning.
as others said, if the deal seems too good to be true, hit the record button on your phone.
Timothy "The Dunce" Dunn after making a total fool of himself as he got badly beaten up by AeroB13a and the fake Eskimo in the comments, is at it again. He tried to lie about Philippine Airlines and went away with a major case of Depression. Now he’s throwing money at the Delta, looking for a job!
who peed in your cheerios?
either my statement(s) is/are correct or it is/they are not. feel free to address those statements.
and the PR slugfest was not between me and anyone else. clean the scratches off your contacts.
btw, which user name have you ditched to create yet another one as an admission of your failure to win the debate under your last 25 user names?
Timothy "The Dunce" Dunn, a total loser, is being decimated by people all over the OMAAT, especially since they know and admire the many GREAT people that comment. They are very “INTELLIGENT” and, likewise, very “STRONG.” The Dunce has been hit so hard that he was forced to issue an apology, but his apology is worthless. I’ve known him a long time. He’s a bad guy, with major character flaws. He’s also very weak and...
Timothy "The Dunce" Dunn, a total loser, is being decimated by people all over the OMAAT, especially since they know and admire the many GREAT people that comment. They are very “INTELLIGENT” and, likewise, very “STRONG.” The Dunce has been hit so hard that he was forced to issue an apology, but his apology is worthless. I’ve known him a long time. He’s a bad guy, with major character flaws. He’s also very weak and insecure, and will do and say anything for publicity. He was a staunch supporter of Lufthansa and is now a supporter of Delta, but that’s only because I don’t reply to his many comments anymore - Just don’t have the time or inclination to do so. He can never recover from the horrible statement he made yesterday about United, but he is going to have to try, because what he said was totally unacceptable!
Does anyone have link to that article? I am fascinated to read it
He's never going to get $15K. He should take the $1.5K and miles and be happy.
Well it was a “man and his husband” so an argument can be made that they were additionally discriminated against based on their sexual orientation. Had it been a straight male the 15k would have been honored already. Delta needs to pay up.
No idea what I read. Thought it was 2 men and a baby. Need to adjust my glasses.
"Need to adjust my glasses."
And your ridiculous RWNJ victim perspective.
My bet for today, is that this article will attract posts in excess of 100 comments, not including those Tim which will need to respond too.
Quite correct! Timothy "The Dunce" Dunn will be hard at work spewing TOTAL NONSENSE.
…. and on the “Nonsense” front, Kathy, you are well in the lead old girl, yes?
You're one to talk!
They would never start with $15,000. Total BS
How is it total BS if they're acknowledging the offer was made? They would never admit that it was "inadvertently" offered if they hadn't confirmed that it happened. The likely scenario is that the gate agent read the wrong number off the screen, and there's obviously no way they could honor it right then and there.
Where you're correct is that this isn't an offer that Delta would ever make in this scenario, and...
How is it total BS if they're acknowledging the offer was made? They would never admit that it was "inadvertently" offered if they hadn't confirmed that it happened. The likely scenario is that the gate agent read the wrong number off the screen, and there's obviously no way they could honor it right then and there.
Where you're correct is that this isn't an offer that Delta would ever make in this scenario, and that's why they're refusing to honor it. It's similar to a "fat finger" error where it's so egregious that the company will sometimes stick to its guns (like some error fares). While they have some basis for making this argument, they should have been much more generous with a proposed resolution given the specific circumstances and limited applicability. And if this gains any traction they're likely going to end up paying out the full $15k anyway for PR purposes.
One can easily claim “company x said/admitted via email” and could also easily Dr up an email when forwarding it to ‘prove’ something.
Only a court could compel the actual email record so we will never know… especially over $1.5-$15k, but I’m quite confident this is all fabricated.
Notwithstanding what you or I or anyone may think, Delta admitted in writing that the $15K was announced:
"In email communication after the fact, the airline acknowledged that the $15,000 number was 'unintentionally' shared, but refused to honor it."
One presumes that the CoC it will force the customer into arbitration, which he will lose, of course, however the facts do seem to point to the offer being made.
No jury is going to find in favor of the plaintiff. That obviously is a mistake and merchants do not have to honor.
love how the pax should have known it was "obviously a mistake" when the FA and GA, both of whom actually work for the airline, did not
"It's not lies, it's bs"
- Elwood Blues
I love all these suggestions about video and audio. Write it down! You know, with a pen, on paper. Then challenge The Delta employee to sign the paper, with employee number, date, time, place. They won't, of course, but that's how you know it's bs. Another tactic might be to ask captain to witness the verbal promise. They have a professional association with code of ethics, putting...
"It's not lies, it's bs"
- Elwood Blues
I love all these suggestions about video and audio. Write it down! You know, with a pen, on paper. Then challenge The Delta employee to sign the paper, with employee number, date, time, place. They won't, of course, but that's how you know it's bs. Another tactic might be to ask captain to witness the verbal promise. They have a professional association with code of ethics, putting him in jeopardy if he lies about it later.
It's kinda gross that any of this is necessary.
It doesn’t matter. It clearly was a mistake. Passenger is not going to win in court. $1500 and 20k miles is a good haul. Assuming the person didn’t stay being in Maldives or something. lol.
Merry Christmas.
You can find me on flight radar, my registration is R3DN053
If he can find a lawyer, he should most definitely sue.
My closest comparison is about 10 years ago. I was in Amsterdam for a flight home to Detroit. Delta. It was oversold. They offered $500 in vouchers, which at the time was pretty good, and business-class on a later flight. They flew me in KLM business-class from Amsterdam to Heathrow. When I arrived in Heathrow, I didn't have business-class for Heathrow to Detroit....
If he can find a lawyer, he should most definitely sue.
My closest comparison is about 10 years ago. I was in Amsterdam for a flight home to Detroit. Delta. It was oversold. They offered $500 in vouchers, which at the time was pretty good, and business-class on a later flight. They flew me in KLM business-class from Amsterdam to Heathrow. When I arrived in Heathrow, I didn't have business-class for Heathrow to Detroit. The red coat supervisor at Heathrow claimed there all she could give me was an economy seat in the last row of the aircraft.
This is why it's essentially to record these moments on your phone, especially in one-party consent jurisdictions.
They will definitely get pissed when people ie everyone turn their camera phones to record when they promise that going forward! lol then they will cry about how they were forced to honor it lol
Might be a good idea to video these types of situations. Do not need to video the faces of people but at least have audio.
Yeah going forward if I ever got an offer like that, I'd ask the FA if I could record them saying it