Have you ever been offered a travel voucher if you volunteer to give up your airplane seat? It is not uncommon for airlines to make such offer but I always question why they would oversell their seats…
This past July 4th weekend, I was flying to Chicago for a charity event at the children’s hospital. Normally, I’d avoid travel during big national holidays (i.e. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and etc) but I had to be in Chicago for the charity event this time.
So what is the $2,000 voucher about? Well, it was what the airline offered me along with 14 other passengers this time. Crazy, right? In fact, they oversold by at least 50+ passengers this time. I had been offered $300, $500, but never $2,000 voucher for a domestic flight. On one hand, I was happy that I will get a free international trip with the $2,000 voucher; on the other hand, I couldn’t stop but feeling bad about how I had the option of staying or flying out while the rest of the 50 passengers didn’t. I was fortunately never been in the position of not able to get on the flight due to an oversold situation but I can only imagine the frustration of those passengers…. after all, we all paid for the same ticket price (I assume?).
So, what did I decide at the end? Truth to be told, I was very tempted to take the $2,000 voucher and I even signed the voucher in the beginning. But at the end, I decided not to give up my seat after all because I was really looking forward to visiting the kids in Chicago.
What would you do if you were me?
X Project 52 