The airline will ask if there's anyone willing to be bumped from the flight in exchange for compensation (e.g., USAir will give you a free round-trip ticket anywhere in North America). The airline will then put you on the next available flight to your destination, along with your free ticket. 

Flights to, from and within the EU (European Union)

• First, when expecting to turn passengers away, and before doing anything else, airlines and tour operators would be obliged to call for volunteers to surrender their seats in exchange for advantages; they would then agree the conditions of the exchange with them. Only if insufficient volunteers came forward, would they be allowed to deny passengers boarding against their will.
• Second, if after all airlines or tour operators do deny passengers boarding, they would have to pay compensation at a dissuasive level:
  • € 250 for flights of less than 1500 kms
  • € 400 for flights between 1500 and 3500 kms
  • € 600 for flights of 3500 kms or more

These amounts will have to be revised within 4 years.

This would create a strong incentive to make volunteering attractive and a powerful deterrent to deny boarding. Thanks to a volunteer system, in the United States most overbooked passengers give up their seats voluntarily and few are bumped off flights.

In addition to financial compensation, passengers denied boarding would continue to enjoy both these rights:

• the choice between an alternative flight as soon as possible and reimbursement of their ticket in case the delay has made their journey pointless; and
• care while awaiting a later flight (refreshments, meals, accommodation).

Volunteers would also be able to choose between an alternative flight and reimbursement of their ticket.

Minimise the inconvenience of cancellations.

When airlines or tour operators cancel flights and are responsible for doing so (under no extraordinary circumstance),

Passengers will have the right to compensation at the rate fixed for denied boarding (cancellation is denied boarding in an extreme form), unless they are informed two weeks before the scheduled time of departure, or they are informed on due time and re-routed at a time very close to the previous scheduled flight.

In addition to the financial compensation, these passengers would receive two other rights:

• a choice between an alternative flight at the earliest opportunity and reimbursement of their ticket;
• care while awaiting a later flight.

Assist passengers facing long delays.

Delays at EU airports are worsening and it is unacceptable to leave passengers stranded for hours. The new regulation would oblige to give assistance to the passengers affected by long delays (refreshments, meals, hotels), who will also have the choice between an alternative flight as soon as possible and reimbursement of their ticket. In addition, airlines would be obliged to care for passengers with special needs, such as those with reduced mobility or unaccompanied children However, no compensation is foreseen for the normal delays as it is generally considered it would be unfair to oblige airlines to care for all delayed passengers, though many choose to do so, as delays are not always their fault.

This new regulation will apply to passengers:

• departing from an airport located in the territory of a Member State,
• or passengers departing from an airport in a third country to an airport in a Member State, unless they already receive benefits or compensation and were given assistance in that third country, if the operating air carrier of the flight concerned is a Community carrier.

It will concern all flights which means that the current rights, which are limited to regular flights, are going to be extended to charters and package holiday flights (in that last case the sole compensation will be considered, other rights being already covered by existing EU legislation).

Other flights

Vouchers are typically valid for only a year from date of issue. But if you ask *before you get the ticket*, you can sometimes get it extended for a month or two beyond the year limitation. (Some folks have reported success in getting vouchers extended a month or so before expiration.) If your voucher is expiring you can also try using it to get a ticket with a particular origin and destination but no specific departure and return dates. Such tickets should be good for 12 months. Many bump vouchers, however, prohibit exchanging them for such "open" tickets. An alternative is to use the voucher to book a flight to your favorite destination for some likely dates. If the dates don't work out, you can usually rebook the tickets for different dates for a small fee. 

So another way to reduce the cost of flying is to volunteer to be bumped. You can maximize your chances of being bumped by purchasing a confirmed reservation on flights that are most likely to be full. A good time is 7-10 am or 4-7 pm on a weekday (especially Monday morning and Friday afternoon). These are the times most businessmen fly (trying to make early morning meetings or to get home for dinner in the evening), and hence when the airline is most likely to be overbooked. Airlines are also likely to be overbooked on Sunday nights (early evening) and the beginning and end of holidays, since that is when non-businessmen typically fly. For example, right before Thanksgiving and the Sunday or Monday after are prime bumping times. The same is true of typical spring break destinations toward the end of March and beginning of April. Receiving a free roundtrip ticket effectively cuts your air travel costs in half. And if you get bumped while using a previous free bump ticket, it gets even cheaper. 

Even on the best days for being bumped, the likelihood is still rather low. Airline yield software has been getting better and better, so it is uncommon for bumping to occur. The DOT figures cited in [4-4] show that American had an involuntary bump rate of 1 in 200,000 in 1993. (These figures do NOT include voluntary bumps, which are more likely. The DOT does not collect statistics on voluntary bumping. Note also that American had the lowest involuntarily bump rate. The likelihood of your being bumped voluntarily on an average carrier is probably close to 1 in 10,000.) 

If you want to be bumped and notice that the flight looks full, get to the gate as early as possible (e.g., 1-2 hours before departure) and ask the gate agent whether they are overbooked. If they are, they will need volunteers. Ask them to put your name on the bump list (aka "bump queue"). Bump tickets are offered on a first come/first served basis, so you want to get your name near the top of the list. This will give you priority if there are only a few bumps. Note, however, that by pre-volunteering, you're only likely to get a free ticket in addition to rebooking on a flight later that day. If nobody volunteers and you wait until they ask for volunteers, you can sometimes up the ante, depending on how desperate they get. (Some airlines give all volunteers the same thing, no matter when they volunteered. Others will process you as soon as you volunteer, so the later you volunteer, the better the incentive.) In general, you should put your name on the bump list, and don't wait until the airline calls for volunteers. Enough people volunteer ahead of time these days that if you don't put your name on the list, you won't have the opportunity to be bumped (except on very rare occasions, when not enough people volunteer). 

When you get your bump ticket and are being rebooked on a later flight, if the delay is a few hours, ask the gate agent if they can give you a meal voucher. This voucher, which is worth $5-$10, can be used at airport restaurants to get something to eat. Not every airline and not every gate agent will give you one, and they certainly won't give you one if you don't ask for it, but sometimes they will. If you have any other special requirements (e.g., you want extra frequent flyer credits, you want the free ticket to be good for an extra month, etc.) it doesn't hurt to ask. 

If you have a confirmed reservation, and you notice the flight is overbooked but first class is underbooked and you don't necessarily want to be bumped, try being the last person on line. If you are lucky the coach and business class will be full, and they will have to upgrade you to first class at no charge. (Also, having a pre-issued boarding pass will decrease your chances of an involuntary bump.) This is risky, though, because you might wind up being bumped anyway, so only do it if you don't care whether you'll be bumped.

It always pays to volunteer to be bumped, even if the flight isn't overbooked. If the airline needs adjacent seating for a family, they will sometimes bump you into first class if you are in a row by yourself. 

When you arrive at the airport, check the flight schedules to see which flights (on the airline and its competitors) will be departing for your destination, and when. Airlines are extremely reluctant to book a volunteer on another carrier, so if you get bumped on the last flight to your destination, you may have to stay overnight at a hotel. 

Good days to get bumped include: Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Sunday after; couple days before and after Christmas weekend; ditto with New Years. Friday afternoons, evenings, and Sunday afternoons and evenings also bump a lot. 

Another trick is to ask your travel agent which flights are full or nearly full and to purchase tickets for one of those flights. (Not every travel agent will let you do this.) Note, however, that you probably won't be able to get the discount rate for such a flight, since all the seats in the discount coach fare class have probably been sold. Also, if a flight has reached the overbook limit, you won't be able to buy any ticket for the flight, except perhaps a full fare ticket. 

If the airline still has plenty of coach seats a day or so before the flight, it is unlikely that they will bump. Here's what some airlines usually give volunteers: 

• Delta, USAir: Open roundtrip (Delta requires reservations three days before flight time on bump tickets.) 
• United: Travel voucher in increments of $100 based on how long you have to wait for your next flight (e.g., 2 hour wait is $200), up to a maximum of $300. You can also ask for a food voucher. 
• Continental: US domestic roundtrip ticket. Sometimes offers a dollar amount in credit to be used towards any Continental flight (e.g., $300). 
• American, America West, Southwest, Northwest: $$ off another ticket (usually $150 to $300; Northwest generally around $300; American has been known to go as high as $1000.) Dollar-denominated vouchers are not subject to tax, so they stretch further. Amounts depend on the degree of overbooking of the flight. United sometimes will also issue a dollar-denominated voucher. 
• Air Canada offers $150 cash or $300 in travel vouchers. 

United bumps more than average, Delta less. 

If you are bumped and the next flight out is the next day, the airline may offer you overnight accomodation in addition, especially if you are bumped while away from home.

Most bump tickets (vouchers) are non-transferable, so you must use them yourself. If the voucher must be exchanged for a ticket, you may be able to have the ticket issued in someone else's name, given a reasonable excuse (e.g., your girlfriend/boyfriend). 

If you are bumped (voluntarily or involuntarily) and have checked baggage, the airline will not remove your bags from the plane. The bags will continue on to your destination and wait there until you arrive. So if you're planning to be bumped, bring enough clean clothes in your carry-on to last you a day or two just in case your bags are lost or stolen by the time you arrive, or you get stuck at a connection.

If you get bumped or your flight is canceled and need to stay at a hotel overnight, hotels near the airport will often give you a substantial discount if you ask for it (50% discount is not unheard of). Ask for the "Distressed Passenger Rate". Airlines also have overnight kits they can give you. 

A flight being cancelled is *not* the same as being bumped. Bumping occurs only when the carrier has more passengers with confirmed tickets on the flight than seats. You can get compensation if you are bumped, but not if the flight is cancelled.

If airline delays cause you extra expense, the airlines may be willing to help you out. For example, if the airline delay caused you to miss the cheap bus shuttle service to downtown, the airline may be willing to pay the difference between cab fare and shuttle fare. But in general, there aren't any policies for compensation (e.g., meals, hotel, etc.) that must be given to bumped and delayed passengers. Some airlines are very nice and will give you food coupons if you ask, some won't. 

Under Department of Transportation rules, an involuntarily bumped traveler who is delayed more than one hour but less than two on a US domestic flight is entitled to $200 or 100 percent of the one-way fare, whichever is less (the airline must also honor the original ticket). For delays longer than two hours, the compensation doubles. The calculation of delay is according to the time of arrival at the destination. Airlines can offer you a travel voucher (for a free US domestic round-trip ticket) in lieu of cash, but must give you the cash if that's what you want. Airlines like bumped volunteers because free travel vouchers cost them less than the cash compensation they're required to offer involuntarily bumped passengers. Approximately 1 in 10,000 passengers is bumped involuntarily. (If the involuntarily bumped passengers are put on a flight which brings them to their destination within an hour of the original flight time, the airline has met its requirement.) Anything more is strictly the policy of the airline, which is stated in its Conditions of Carriage statement. (To obtain this statement, get it either from your travel agent or by writing to the customer affairs office of your airline. Be sure to ask for the full copy of the conditions; otherwise they'll give you just a three page summary of the limitations of liability sections.) Note that these rules do NOT apply to delayed passengers in general, just to involuntarily bumped passengers. 

According to a 1994 Supreme Court ruling, passengers who are denied boarding can sue the airline for compensatory damages, but not punitive damages. So in most cases you are better off accepting the compensation offered by the airlines. 

Note that if you don't show up at the gate 15 minutes before departure, the airline can involuntarily bump you and not owe you anything. 

There are no rules governing compensation for volunteers -- airlines can offer as little or as much as it takes to bid you off the flight. Delta restricts reservations using volunteer bumped vouchers to two days in advance. 

Re-booking: Most volunteers are routinely booked on another flight within a few hours, but re-routing isn't a legal requirement. Before giving up your seat, ask when the next flight leaves, whether you'll have a confirmed or standby reservation and (if the flight is with another carrier) whether you'll have to pay additional fare. 

Negotiating: Most airline managers can escalate compensation offers in an attempt to get enough volunteers. So you might get a better deal by simply asking for one. American Airlines, which has the lowest rate of involuntary bumpees in the industry, tends to be the most generous with compensation for volunteers. 

Sometimes, when all of the airline's flights are full, they will reroute you on another airline. However, if you are flying on a free ticket (e.g., frequent flyer ticket, previous bump ticket), they may not be willing to endorse your ticket over to the other airline. (It doesn't hurt to ask.) So they'll have to send you out on another flight later that day. If this happens and "inconveniences" you (i.e., you have to wait another hour or so), you may be able to weasel something else out of the airline -- a roll of quarters for the pinball machine, use of their club facilities, first class accomodations on the later flight, meal voucher, or something. 

If you volunteer and they don't need to bump you, you don't lose your seat. If you volunteer, they need you, and you change your mind, you may lose your seat, and wind up in a random seat. That is, of course, if the airline decides to accommodate you. Once you've volunteered and they've accepted your offer, you can't really reneg on it. 

If you are bumped on an international flight, the airline will reroute you but generally not offer you any extra compensation. Involuntary reroutings may involve upgrading your class of service (at no extra cost to you) or putting you on a different carrier to your destination at the same or higher class of service. If rerouting you requires an overnight stay, the airline will provide you with vouchers for hotel rooms and meals. But you won't get any free tickets, and writing a letter of complaint to the airline probably won't get you anything. (The only case where complaining will get you something is if you paid for a first class ticket, and they rerouted you on a lower class of service. If this occurs, ask the airline to refund the difference in fares.) If you're traveling international and don't want to be bumped, buy a first class ticket. Airlines rarely bump first class passengers.