I expect I will find amusement in all this within a few weeks. Even now I'm not as hot as I would have thought I would be:
As I usually do when I think a flight might be oversold I get to the gate early and ask the agent if the flight might be oversold and he/she might need volunteers. The agent says yes, asks if I would like to volunteer, takes my boarding pass and types on her keyboard. Based on past experience I take this to mean she is adding me to whatever volunteers have already been solicited during online or kiosk checkin. So I'm bummed because I did not use online or kiosk (I was VDB'ed from the previous flight) so this means I may not be first on the list. But oh well, that's how the game works.
Then they make announcements soliciting more volunteers. They start at $400 and fairly quickly get to $800.
As I usually do when I volunteer I stay close to the podium. Based on who asks to volunteer after I do (no one did before I did--I was there before the agent was) and who the agent calls up to discuss volunteering I deduce that I am number two on the list. I deduce this because I don't recognize one of the people called up, so that must mean she volunteered online or at the kiosk, and the rest of the folks that are called up volunteered at the gate.
The last two folks that volunteered are traveling together.
In the end they need all but one of the volunteers.
Now this is where it gets icky: The agent starts calling up folks from the TOP of the list and asking "we have a seat--do you want to go?" I eavesdrop on number one being asked this question and she says of course "no". When I am asked I am still kind of flabbergasted--why would I volunteer if I wanted to go?--so I confirm she is still offering me the voucher and then I say "no" too.
So now there are three more on the list--number three is traveling alone and numbers four and five are traveling together. So she tells number three she doesn't need his seat any more. Number three complains (nicely I might add--no voices were raised, no profanity was used) because, well, he's number three. The agent explains that she (actually this might be the he agent now--there are two) needs all but one volunteer and the agent is not going to split up the couple traveling together. Number three wants to see a redcoat. The agent obliges because the plane is on a mechanical delay so there is no hurry. Meanwhile the agent processes the couple at the bottom of the list. I find this annoying--but I keep my mouth shut. The redcoat shows up, number three complains to the redcoat, and then eventually the redcoat looks at the list, says something that makes me think she's thinking backwards ("higher on the list means get on the plane"--that's backwards), calls me up and tells me to get on the plane.
Unfortunately at this point I am seeing red so I am not thinking as clearly as I ought to. All I can think to do is point out that the loud (figuratively loud) guy won and take down the names of the redcoat and the agents, and get on the plane. If I had been thinking clearly I might have pointed out to the redcoat that she was thinking backwards, that higher on the list means use their seats first. I would also have pointed out to the agent who was calling people up from the top of the list that every other time I've seen this done I've seen the agent call from the BOTTOM of the list and politely tell the person "we don't need your seat, thank you for volunteering". At least at that point if the redcoat still told me to get on the plane I would have felt I had done all I could.
In retrospect this was the result of a very unlikely set of circumstances coming together: very green agents who clearly had not done this much if ever, just the right combination of seats needed and volunteers traveling together, a loud (not literally loud--like I said given the circumstances everyone was pretty courteous) guy (number three), and a mechanical delay.
Finally it could have been worse: the mechanical delay ended up being on the order of twenty-five minutes for departure and even less for arrival. I don't remember being on such a short mechanical delay before. I was half afraid they hadn't fixed the problem! But then I went back to my default line of thinking which must be (true or not) that the people driving the plane want to live as much as I do.
I will not do anything with the names. There really is nothing I can do now. Delta can run the VDB game any way it wants. And I have won the game often enough.
There was a far less dramatic story to tell regarding my earlier successful VDB. But I've forgotten the details now. A side effect of growing older. Ah well.
As I usually do when I think a flight might be oversold I get to the gate early and ask the agent if the flight might be oversold and he/she might need volunteers. The agent says yes, asks if I would like to volunteer, takes my boarding pass and types on her keyboard. Based on past experience I take this to mean she is adding me to whatever volunteers have already been solicited during online or kiosk checkin. So I'm bummed because I did not use online or kiosk (I was VDB'ed from the previous flight) so this means I may not be first on the list. But oh well, that's how the game works.
Then they make announcements soliciting more volunteers. They start at $400 and fairly quickly get to $800.
As I usually do when I volunteer I stay close to the podium. Based on who asks to volunteer after I do (no one did before I did--I was there before the agent was) and who the agent calls up to discuss volunteering I deduce that I am number two on the list. I deduce this because I don't recognize one of the people called up, so that must mean she volunteered online or at the kiosk, and the rest of the folks that are called up volunteered at the gate.
The last two folks that volunteered are traveling together.
In the end they need all but one of the volunteers.
Now this is where it gets icky: The agent starts calling up folks from the TOP of the list and asking "we have a seat--do you want to go?" I eavesdrop on number one being asked this question and she says of course "no". When I am asked I am still kind of flabbergasted--why would I volunteer if I wanted to go?--so I confirm she is still offering me the voucher and then I say "no" too.
So now there are three more on the list--number three is traveling alone and numbers four and five are traveling together. So she tells number three she doesn't need his seat any more. Number three complains (nicely I might add--no voices were raised, no profanity was used) because, well, he's number three. The agent explains that she (actually this might be the he agent now--there are two) needs all but one volunteer and the agent is not going to split up the couple traveling together. Number three wants to see a redcoat. The agent obliges because the plane is on a mechanical delay so there is no hurry. Meanwhile the agent processes the couple at the bottom of the list. I find this annoying--but I keep my mouth shut. The redcoat shows up, number three complains to the redcoat, and then eventually the redcoat looks at the list, says something that makes me think she's thinking backwards ("higher on the list means get on the plane"--that's backwards), calls me up and tells me to get on the plane.
Unfortunately at this point I am seeing red so I am not thinking as clearly as I ought to. All I can think to do is point out that the loud (figuratively loud) guy won and take down the names of the redcoat and the agents, and get on the plane. If I had been thinking clearly I might have pointed out to the redcoat that she was thinking backwards, that higher on the list means use their seats first. I would also have pointed out to the agent who was calling people up from the top of the list that every other time I've seen this done I've seen the agent call from the BOTTOM of the list and politely tell the person "we don't need your seat, thank you for volunteering". At least at that point if the redcoat still told me to get on the plane I would have felt I had done all I could.
In retrospect this was the result of a very unlikely set of circumstances coming together: very green agents who clearly had not done this much if ever, just the right combination of seats needed and volunteers traveling together, a loud (not literally loud--like I said given the circumstances everyone was pretty courteous) guy (number three), and a mechanical delay.
Finally it could have been worse: the mechanical delay ended up being on the order of twenty-five minutes for departure and even less for arrival. I don't remember being on such a short mechanical delay before. I was half afraid they hadn't fixed the problem! But then I went back to my default line of thinking which must be (true or not) that the people driving the plane want to live as much as I do.
I will not do anything with the names. There really is nothing I can do now. Delta can run the VDB game any way it wants. And I have won the game often enough.
There was a far less dramatic story to tell regarding my earlier successful VDB. But I've forgotten the details now. A side effect of growing older. Ah well.