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Comment by avonmach | Hacker News Reader

17 pointsavonmach9 comments

Link says Facebook but it really redirects to a YouTube link with tracking. It opened the YouTube app on my phone which was unexpected/startled me.

Mods maybe want to change the link to this so the domain is accurate? https://youtube.com/watch?v=h5W4SEXuMQ4

Alternatively, here's the article by the same local news channel that posted the YouTube video:

https://www.wzzm13.com/article/travel/delta-airlines-offered...

https://archive.ph/4bwFd

Ugh, I hate video links! Who has time for that.

I found these using google:

https://www.wzzm13.com/article/travel/delta-airlines-offered...

https://eyeoftheflyer.com/2022/06/28/delta-bump-80000-grand-...

How does it make sense to pay that much money? That's $80k for the eight people who took the deal.

Was there some special person who was carrying some important item? Or can you pay to bump other people off a flight like that, just because you're rich?

Astonishing that this could happen, I'm pretty sure I'd take the $10k. Seems like easy money.

I'm just as curious as you -- I can kinda see the math behind sloppily overbooking and paying $3-500 occasionally for the operational cost savings, but I have a tough time seeing how it adds up once you're paying out 10s of K$.

Here's a thread of people discussing it: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta-air-lines-skymiles/208...

Including a reasonable hypothesis: The next available flight was 2-3 days later. So the amount of money could cover 3 days of hotel, food, and lost income. Of course, most people have a drivers license and could rent a car and drive -- but not everyone.

Usually it means one of two things:

1. There is a regulatory (or contract) issue if this isn't fixed _now_. They would also have had some reason to avoid involuntary deboarding, which they usually don't.

2. A gate agent was angry and wanted to send a message to corporate (possibly just before quitting).

They start at a lower amount and then increase it until they have the required people. The lower and upper bound on what they can offer first appeared in a leaked 2017 memo. 2017 also happens to be the year of the violent removal of someone on a United flight: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_United_Express_passenger_...

My guess would be that Delta put this policy into place after the terrible United incident.

I once got paid $800 to wait for 4 more hours to fly to Idaho Springs. 10k would be my vacation budget for quite a while.

I don't remember the compensation being that high if an airline bumps you involuntarily for an overbooked flight. Perhaps, though, that airlines have gotten so nervous about unruly passengers and ugly viral videos that they feel it's just worth it to pay volunteers more than they would have to if they bumped people involuntarily?

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