Bumped. It's a dreaded word for most airline passengers. But, for savvy travelers with a little extra time on their hands, getting bumped can be a bonanza.
With record numbers of people flying on fewer planes, ticketed passengers are more likely to get bumped since airlines routinely overbook. Before they involuntarily bump passengers, airlines must seek volunteers, however.
To entice passengers to trade their seat on a plane for one in the airport waiting lounge, carriers offer sometimes irresistible incentives: free tickets, frequent flier points, even cash. As a result, more and more travelers are rushing to the gate to become volunteer "bumpees."
"It's a scheme that's growing among passengers, but it's working out for everyone," said David Stempler, president of AirTrav Advisors, a Washington-based air travel consultant firm. "In the old days, the last person who got to the gate was denied boarding."
Overbooking and bumping are not illegal. Airlines know that a certain percentage of ticketed passengers -- particularly those with fully refundable tickets -- won't show up. To make sure that their planes are as full as possible, all airlines overbook flights.
Because carriers have improved their calculations about no-shows and boosted their volunteer rate, there's actually less risk today that passengers will be bumped involuntary. Since 1990, the number of passengers involuntarily bumped by major U.S. airlines has dropped to 48,665 from 57,441, while the number of volunteers jumped by nearly a quarter of a million -- to 793,747 from 547,540.
"People understand this is a good deal," said David Castelveter, a spokesman for USAir Group Inc., the parent company of USAir, the largest carrier at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. "The flight can be virtually empty and somebody will walk up and say, 'Are you taking volunteers?' " Volunteering is definitely not for everyone, particularly those on a tight schedule who need to make appointments or important flight connections. But often, passengers have the luxury of getting bumped.
"Only one out of five times does a couple hours make a difference to me," said Gregg Somerville, a Wilmington, Del., stockbroker who has picked up seven or eight free, round-trip tickets during the past five years.
"If it looks crowded, I'll always volunteer," he said. "There's usually no shortage of volunteers."
