A new meaning for "paid vacation"

"Wait...you want to pay me 80 bucks
to fly to New York? Sure!"

It's like a pitch on a late-night infomercial: "What if I told you that we could get you to your destination at the same time as scheduled... and we'll pay you the price of your ticket, plus an extra eighty dollars?"

That was the question posed to me when I checked in for my flight to New York this past weekend. Turns out that United overbooked the flight, and since I hadn't chosen a seat, I got "bumped". (I skipped selecting seats in the hope that I'd wind up in a roomier "Economy Plus" seat for the five hour redeye from LAX to JFK.)