singlemalt wrote:

Here's the deal. In Phoenix they asked for volunteers to take a "bump" on
the flight to Austin. Having done so many times on AA I volunteered. They
offered a "flight certificate" good for any round trip flight in the USA.
That's what they told me. Now, I have tried to use it 3-4 times going to
various cities at various times. I tried to go out as far as May to schedule
a flight from Austin to Chicago and no spaces are available for use with
this so called "flight certificate" Basically, what I got was a frequent
flyer miles award worth 25,000 miles. I was told that I could use it toward
buying a ticket and its value would $200. This thing is practically
worthless.


I am a bit confused. If it really is worth the same as a 25K roundtrip
FF award, then there is plenty of availability from Austin to ORD.
http://www.usairways.com/awa/booking...ilability.aspx

It looks like there are no dates for May, possibly because they will be
loaded later. A good part of October has 12500 one way awards.
The latest 12500 award to ORD is Jan 27. The latest return is Feb 7.
I assume they will add more dates later.

25K round trips are limited on many carriers.
From looking at paid fares, it looks like there are only non-stops on
US are UA codeshares, so it looks like you are fighting for awards on
AUS-CLT AND CLT-ORD, which reduces your chances.

I like AA's set up as they give $$ vouchers when you volunteer your
seat. I once got $800 plus hotel, meals, and a business class upgrade
from BRU-ORD-SJC when I gave up my BRU-ORD coach seat. This was a good
thing. It was a work trip and my return was delayed, so the I had no
seat assignment on the flight I gave up my seat on. I was worrying about
getting a middle seat. The flight was delayed for a mechanical and was
scheduled to be at least 6 1/2 hours late. So, when the request was made
for volunteers, it didn't take long for me to do the math.

This Monday probably has a good chance for oversold situations. Just
don't offer to do this on DL.