Recently I read a news that the United Airlines gave out a voucher worth 10,000 USD to an involuntarily bumped passenger. Based on my past experience I started wondering the odds such a big check could be cut.
Before revealing my own story, interested readers can check this post referring to that 10,000 USD event. I just realized it happened in the same month as my story! (And what I earned now looks like a pocket change.)
https://www.businessinsider.com/airline-travel-vouchers-how-to-use-2018-3
Last march I had a one-week workshop in Aspen, Colorado.
Usually I avoid flying UA when possible, but flying to Aspen didn't really have many alternative options. I DID consider making a connection in Denver, yet it turned out a flight solely from Denver to Aspen is already pricier than the non-stop flight.
Fortunately nothing dramatic happened on my way flying there. Moreover, Aspen in that week was extremely fabulous. (I mean if one adores snow scene.)
The real story came on the last day of my stay as I arrived at the boarding gate, just a step away from my flight back to Chicago. The flight attendants announced that they looked for 5 voluntary bumping owing to weather condition. (I guess it's the wind.) Each volunteer was offered a compensation of $800, in the form of UA voucher.
It was actually the first time I encountered this announcement in person (probably because I had chosen not to fly domestic airlines on purpose) and being honest I was quite excited (?!) about witnessing what I read in newspapers. I saw several people approached the attendants, 2-3 of whom proceeded and signed some form.
There were not 5 of them signing and a raise in compensation was kind of expected in the terminal. At that point those best-stopping time notion had not really been built in my thinking, yet I was seriously considering bumping if the compensation rose.
Voila, after about 10 mins of silence they raised face value of the voucher to 1,000. That sounded acceptable to me and I indeed went to the staff for rebooking information and of course further information of that voucher. They told me they would book me a connection in San Francisco, followed by a red-eye back to Chicago. A connection in Denver was not offered since the last flight from there to the Windy City had already taken off that day (and they didn't want to provide me accommodation.) This reroute actually irritated me ... a bit.
Fine. I was a cheap Asian male, so I took that voucher.
Looking back, I would not say my choice was terribly bad. I did not mind flying the red-eye, but flying a UA aircraft with screens removed was quite a disappointing experience. (That's right. They scooped out the screens on the backside of the seats. Serious, that was new to me.) What really annoyed me was restrictions on the voucher -- it could not purchase a code-share flight.
I guess it is sort of a common sense (or is it?) but the story is when I asked the attendant in Aspen, she told me it should be able to purchase any flight I find on UA website. Okay, here I busted the myth. With these limitation, I ended up booking a multi-stop flight ORD-FRA + MUC-ORD and a X'Mas trip ORD-LHR. Not my favorite routes but still quite some traveling.
At the end of the day, should we take it or not? I admit that I will leave the ultimate answer to you (as most articles do). I guess it depended on your schedule, your stakes and a lot more. In my case, before that I had no bumping experience, and consequently I personally regard it as one of my funny US experiences, which I couldn't and probably can't ever choose to buy. I hope this post really told you something, which hopefully all my readers won't have to undergo!
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