I’m having another unexpected #travel experience. While waiting to board a 9 PM EST domestic flight, an airline agent went on speaker to announce that the flight was oversold by 2 seats, so they were looking for two volunteers with flexible schedule to be booked on an early morning flight tomorrow instead. For the trouble, they would award them $1,000 each in gift cards.
We started debating the idea with my partner, and by the time we figured out we pull it off, the bid had increased to $1,500 in reward. At this point we showed up at the gate desk just before another passenger which had also convinced by the new bid.
Lo and behold, after a taxi ride also covered by the airline to stay at an airport hotel, we’ll now have a short sleep before we need to get up to catch our new flight. It’s a little inconvenient, but our next transatlantic flight to visit my parents is now mostly covered by the reward.
I’ve never given much credit to those social media post asking whether you would do something mildly inconvenient for an absurd sum of money, but I never expected to be given an actual opportunity. And it looks like $1,500 is my price point for a short night in a crappy airport hotel to catch an early plane instead of an evening one.
Epilogue: I'm flying over the week-end, and today Alaska Airlines sent me an email asking if my schedule for my return flight is flexible, so that they can offer me $55 in credit to change flight.
So, it turned out the 6:30 AM EST flight we got moved to was also oversold, and when we arrived at the gate, they were looking for one volunteer to take the 8:40 AM EST flight in exchange for US $500. My partner made it very clear none of us were going to take this opportunity this time.
An unfortunate consequence is that our booking at the hotel was cancelled despite us calling yesterday evening and we were given assurance that we could do a "late late check-in". Between this and the car service that took more than an hour to show up to bring us to the airport hotel, it has put a damper on this lucrative adventure.
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