Obviously, in light of the recent UA incident. No idea how to include all factors, so simply consider the last flight you were on. I imagine most folks’ values might differ going vs returning.
My last trip was a ski trip to Denver with my wife. Had a few days before skiing to visit my son. A day’s delay wouldn’t have been a big deal, but a grand or 2 wouldn’t really change my life. I could imagine accepting $2k for the 2 of us to fly the next day.
Coming home, our neighbors were watching the dog, and tho I had work the next day, I could have missed it. Again, at a thousand a piece + hotel, I would have started considering it.
Can’t think of an instance in which I would consider less than $500 cash. Not interested in vouchers.
If I’m traveling, it’s going to be with my wife at least (and my last flight was). So if they offered $600-$800 per passenger then that’s an easy $1,200-$1,600 assuming they’re also picking up lodging and flight (which it sounds like was the case in the United example). I’m assuming that’s $600 in cash or Visa gift cards or something and not $600 in United Fun Bucks.
Sure, I’ll burn an extra vacation day, call the office and let my mom know she’s watching the kids an extra night for $1,400. Splitting us as a couple would be far less attractive as it decreases the total and complicates the logistics.
I don’t usually have much flexibility. If I’m flying somewhere, it’s because I have to be there to do something that day or the next (typically a deposition or court hearing). A couple of hours might not matter, but I think I’d rather get there as scheduled then take the compensation. However, for a long flight, if they told me I’d get upgraded and only delayed a couple of hours, that might get me interested.
For pure vacation flights, I’d probably be even less inclined to be bumped. My vacations are too important to miss a few hours or more.
Vouchers or cash?
How far is the flight (300 miles or 3000).
Am I traveling alone or in a group.
How long will I be at my destination.
How long until the next flight? 2 hours or 2 days?
I remember during the great recession I was unemployed and flew to Los Angeles to visit a family member for a month. I’m that situation I’d take a bump for $200 in Vouchers since one way tickets were only $120 at the time.
But if I’m part of a family vacation, probably a lot more.
This is another of those “It depends” situations.
Most cases, I’d be fairly cheap. A few bucks, an upgrade slot, and a hotel room - I’m good.
UNLESS I was on my way to a cannot-be-repeated event. Birth, funeral, wedding, someone at death’s door, and such. In which case, better get out the wrenches, because the only way you’re getting me off the aircraft is if you remove my entire seat.
I’d always take a free overnight accommodation (money would be a bonus), unless I had a same day onward connection. I wonder who takes care of my onward flight connection, if the airline drags me off kicking and screaming?
Last summer, I even asked if I could take an overnight in Dubai and rebook my onward flight for the next day, but they wouldn’t let me because it would have put me in a different fare structure.
When they pay you with a voucher, is that voucher good only against air tickets on that airline? Who the hell would want to fly with them again?
Turns out, next month I have to book a flight to Trinidad – guess which airline flies there? Yup – United.
I’ve accepted vouchers for around $500 to be bumped.
The problem is, they are really difficult to use - they expire in a year, and the airlines go out of their way to make them difficult to use (lots of restrictions). Of course, that’s part of their plan.
It entirely depends. These days it would take a lot, as I’m likely traveling under rather strict scheduling needs. But if that wasn’t the case - I once took a double bump flying from Denver to Ontario, CA. Got $400 for the first bump, then took $400 to miss the next flight, which was also over-booked. That also netted me a decent hotel room for the night and a refund of my flight not only for that leg, but for the return to Anchorage from California. This was on Western Airlines, back before they were gobbled up by Continental.
Like everyone else, it depends. I’m flying to America in August to see the solar eclipse. If the delay means that I won’t see the eclipse, then I’ll need them to get me home but also refund me not only all my flights but the total cost of my holiday and compensation for not seeing the thing, a considerable sum as I’m flying business class. Of course, flying business class means that I’m less likely to get bumped off the flight in the first place. After the eclipse, I’m still bound by onward flights, hotel bookings, etc, but for my flight home, I might well accept a delay in return for decent accommodation and flying first class instead of business class.
And yes, one of my flights - from Phoenix to Washington - is with United.
When my wife and I went to Hawaii two years ago, we had a chance at $1300 each (the max required by the airlines) to delay by a day. I wanted to take it, but she was indecisive, and you have to make that decision fast. Since then, we always discuss before we get to the airport how much we’d take to get bumped so that we have already made our decision. It’s usually around $400-600 each that we’d take.
Also, if you’re pleasant to the airline employee and ask if there’s a possibility of an upgrade to first class, you might get it. My impression is that the chances of this increase if other people are upset/being jerks about it.
The other thing: if you’re going partway to your destination and then staying the night somewhere, make sure they book you a hotel before you get there. Last time I got bumped I got to LA late at night, and was going to continue on the next day, and I had to wait in line for an hour to get my free hotel starting at like 11:30pm on a day that had already been long.
Returning home from a business trip, I voluntarily accepted $118 to take the next flight from Charlotte to Pittsburgh.
The next flight was only an hour or so later, and it ended up taking off before the flight I was originally booked on due to “reasons”. Things were a mess that weekend as American and USAir were merging.
My last flight was at the end of a 28-day business trip where I’d spent that entire time across the country from home, working an average of 14.1 hours per day without a day off. I left my work obligations that day at 5:30PM and was catching a 9:30PM red-eye home. I was desperate to see my wife and be in my own bed. On top of that, I have a flying phobia, and was already medicated for the trip at the point that they’d have been asking for volunteers. Under those specific circumstances, the airline may well have needed to forcibly remove me from the plane to get me to leave. There would have been no reasonable amount of money they could have offered to get me to volunteer.
Under less abnormal circumstances, I’d generally be fine with a few hundred dollars and a hotel room for the inconvenience. I don’t usually plan trips without leaving wiggle room for obligations at both ends, so I’d almost certainly have the flexibility.
And at the current -2.6% percent hit to their stock price today, compared to SW and Delta being flat, and American up about 2 percent, I’m not sure they’ll using those persuasive ways any time soon. The day is young, their price could go back to how their peers are doing, and perhaps you can’t attribute all of the difference in stock price to UAL’s, IMHO, idiotic way of handling their crew logistics issue. Still, dropping 2-3 percent when your peers are either flat or gaining, isn’t a good thing.
FWIW, 2.6% of UAL’s 22.1 billion USD market cap is about 570 million dollars. Which I think would buy a lot of charter space for four employees.
I’d take a lot less in cash than I would need to see in UAL travel vouchers, and in any event, it would depend greatly on how flexible my plans were. When I traveled a lot, it was for my employer’s business, and so you’d be asking me to significantly delay my plans and homecoming, for a reward that my employer would probably take from me anyway.
OTOH, I have heard of plenty of cases of college kids flying back, volunteering to get bumped, and paying for several other trips through airline compensation.
As others have mentioned, I’d value voucher “dollars” much less than legal tender dollars, unless you make them real easy to redeem. But in general if things are not time-critical, cover my room and board until departure and a future flight worth taking and I’m good.
I rarely fly, so I wouldn’t want vouchers. As long as my travel wasn’t for a time-critical reason, whether work or personal, I’d be willing to take several hundred for a delay.
When traveling for business, it would be “not for any price” since if I voluntarily accepted I’d have to give any compensation back to the company to reimburse for the botched travel.
For personal, it all depends on how much pleasure time I’m losing from my destination plans. I would only accept cash or same-as-cash VISA though, plus a comped hotel, never a voucher or gift card. If traveling with family and getting split up, probably not for any price.
Have airlines changed recently to announcing their compensation to everyone in order to entice volunteers? I haven’t been on an overbooked flight for a couple years but several times before that I had when they announced that they were seeking volunteers to be bumped but they would invariably declare somewhat vaguely that compensation would be offered, without specifying what it was.
I’d always assumed the compensation would be so chintzy (like, say, $50 off the next flight), that it wouldn’t be worth it and so I never inquired. I’d consider volunteering for around $1000 considering the hoops I’d have to jump to take advantage of it. Cold hard cash, more like $500.
I’ve heard a gate crew basically bidding for bumpseats - The terminal was crowded, and it was pretty obvious the flight was overbooked. The bump options kept going up until they had enough takers. Dunno if the early takers got rewarded to the same extent as the holds-out.
