Ever since I got the Southwest Companion Pass by earning 110,000 points in this calendar year, we have been flying a lot of Southwest. We flew to Reno for a long-awaited family reunion, then we flew back from Reno, where a passenger told me I was the type of person that shouldn’t have children.
We flew to Atlanta for my sister’s wedding (after a four…. hour…. delay), and each time my wife flew for free (after TSA airport taxes).
Normally, our plans are pretty tight. When coordinating with families, we often don’t have a ton of extra time, not to mention the thought of spending a couple of extra hours with 6 kids is NOT my idea of a good time! We’re just lucky we have learned the tricks of how to get seats near each other on Southwest through family boarding. Even when we’re flying without the crew, most times we need to be back to relieve the babysitter (before they go crazy!!!)
What is voluntary boarding (“getting the bump”)?
Okay, so what exactly is getting a “bump”? The basic idea is that most airlines practice something called “overselling”. You would think at first glance that if you’re an airline flying a plane that has 100 seats, that you would only sell 100 tickets. Well that would just be ludicrous! In reality, they’re likely to sell several extra, counting on some people to not show up. Usually that does happen, and the plane takes off fine and dandy.
But sometimes (gasp!) everyone does show up, and the airline has to kick some people off the plane (since we don’t yet have standing room only seats on aircraft)
Different airlines have different rules and compensation if you are voluntarily denied boarding (VDB). Some airlines have a standard rule of what kind of compensation you’ll receive, and sometimes it’s down to how the gate agent is feeling, and the law of supply and demand – how many people are willing to volunteer.
There is also involuntary denied boarding (IDB) – if the airline can’t get anyone to volunteer, they still can’t fly the plane with more people than seats, so they can INVOLUNTARILY deny you. There are rules (and even laws!) regarding your compensation in this case, and typically it is higher (MUCH higher) than if you are a volunteer.
Ways to increase your odds
If your schedule is flexible, and you’re looking to get a bump, there are a few things that you can do to increase your chances:
- Choose your flights wisely – busier flights lead to more opportunities for oversold flights.
- Don’t check any bags. It should go without saying that if the airline has to go find your bags and take them off the plane, your chances are much lower
- Arrive at the gate early
- When you get there, let the gate agent take care of his/her business, and then approach them and ask to be put on the voluntary denied boarding (bump) list.
- Know the flight schedule – if you’re knowledgeable about what other options you have, you may be able to find one that
Compensation on Southwest
So in preparation for an(other) upcoming flight on Southwest, I thought I would check what Southwest’s policies are, and they actually have a whole section about overbooking on their website – some exceprts:
If you volunteer to give up your seat in an oversale situation and we can rebook you on a Southwest Airlines flight that will arrive within two hours of your originally scheduled arrival time, we will give you a travel voucher in the amount of $100 plus an amount equal to the face value of your one-way flight coupon(s).
If we cannot confirm your travel within two hours of your originally scheduled arrival time, you will be placed on a priority standby list, and your compensation will increase to a travel voucher in the amount of $300 plus an amount equal to the face value of your one-way flight coupon(s). If you are not accommodated as a standby Customer, we will confirm you on a later Southwest Airlines flight(s) with seats available to your destination. You will not incur an increase in fare.
So if your flight originally cost $99, your offer will be $199 if they can rebook you on a flight arriving within 2 hours of your original destination. $399 if they don’t get you there within 2 hours.
Rapid Rewards or Companion Pass
But what if you’re flying on a rewards ticket, or on a Companion Pass ticket? How is your ticket value calculated? It seems that there isn’t always a standard way for this to be calculated – it can depend on the gate agent, and maybe your own salesmanship 😀
There are a few reports of those tickets counting as $0, since technically you didn’t “pay” for them, but there is also a Flyertalk thread where a few people report getting different value. After all, Southwest Rapid Rewards points have a fixed value (and it’s more than you think!)
Does anybody have any experience with bumping on Southwest? Leave a note with what happened to you in the comments!
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Great post. You won’t believe it but I have a post almost done (scheduled for a few days from now) about our experience almost being IDBed on Southwest just last month. Stay tuned.
Well *I’ve* got *ANOTHER* post about *OUR* experience flying out on Southwest coming up :-). We didn’t actually get bumped, but we might have been able to. Looking forward to reading about your experience!
I am pretty good at this; having gotten 3 voluntary bumps. Collected $300 credit plus full refund of my fare each time.
In one case I got the credits AND still got on the original flight!
I usually book a Friday mid afternoon flight. I arrive early. The gate agents usually man the podium 90 minutes before a flight; they announce the flight and if they need a volunteer they will say so. If so, be close to the desk because with SWA they do not overbook by much and need only one volunteer most of the time.
If a volunteer is needed and you are on their list you get two immediate rewards: “A” list boarding and a free drink coupon even if the end up not using your seat.
In one case, at New Orleans, it was so busy they processed my VDB well before boarding began. But as I waited and the plane was fully boarded there was one seat left and I got on and kept the credits.
I travel between LAX and SMF often and try to book my return to LAX Friday at 2PM. I have gotten two full credits twice in 3 three flights the last two months.
The credits last one year and come in the form of credit card number with an expiration date. With that anyone can use it and therefore they are quite easily transferable and thus saleable.
I used to do this on United. Since I had Premier status I could get a confirmed seat on overbooked flights; usually Friday Afternoon. It was so predictable I would book a SWA flight at the same time and got home on time but with $500 credit plus triple miles and full refund in cash.
That’s awesome. One of these days I want to just take a “trip” with the sole intention of just getting bumped and bumped and bumped. It feels like you could probably get access to enough data to be able to do it pretty consistently, if you had nowhere to be…
I was recently involuntarily bumped and th consequence was that I could not arrive at ny destination for 24 hours. So SW compensated me 4x the value of my $300 ticket, so $1200. But the probelm was that I was traveling with my two minor children who obviously could not fly alone as there would be no one to meet them at our destination (we were traveling to FL vacation). SW refused to compensate me for my childrens tickets since they were not technically bumped. Do you know of other dealing with a similar situation? What are the rules?