Delta Offers Passengers on Oversold Flight $10K to Rebook

Sheesh! Delta recently offered $10,000 to passengers traveling on an oversold flight to give up their seats.

Apparently, a Delta flight from Michigan to Minnesota earlier this week was oversold. It’s typical for the airline to offer some type of incentive to passengers who rebook in these situations but the reported $10,000 is the highest I’ve ever heard.

Delta is said to have offered the money to each passenger who volunteered to be rebooked from the Monday morning flight, according to various media outlets.

Jason Aten, who is a tech columnist said he was sitting on the outbound plane and waiting for the aircraft to depart from the gate when he heard a flight attendant on the intercom say the crew was looking for volunteers to give up their seats on the “apparently oversold” flight, and then offered them $10,000 each. 

“If you have Apple Pay, you’ll even have the money right now,” the flight attendant said, Aten, wrote.

Aten was traveling with a group of eight to Alaska but they didn’t volunteer because at the time they didn’t know how many volunteers were needed.

“Had we known it was eight, we would have gotten off,” he told the media outlet. “By the time that was clear, four or five people had already left.”

“Spoiler alert: We did not take it for reasons I’m not going to get into because my wife is still not pleased about it,” he added.

“It’s a true story. I was on that flight!” Todd McCrumb posted on Twitter. “Unfortunately, I could not take advance the offer, as I was flying with my wife who has very limited eyesight. She has to have me nearby when traveling.”

McCrumb said saw at least four others accept the offer.

The flight departed 20 minutes later than scheduled from Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids. It’s unknown how many volunteers accepted the hefty offer.

On Thursday, Delta CEO Ed Bastian apologized for recent flight delays and cancellations that have plagued the travel industry and travelers in recent weeks. Delta’s pilots have picketed lines to complain about overscheduling, “poor reliability” and contract issues.

“If you’ve encountered delays and cancellations recently, I apologize. We’ve spent years establishing Delta as the industry leader in reliability, and though the majority of our flights continue to operate on time, this level of disruption and uncertainty is unacceptable.”