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.)

So, instead of spending three hours waiting for a connection in LA, I was put on Delta with a different redeye through Salt Lake City that would arrive in a half hour before the originally scheduled flight. 

The shorter flight meant that I'd get one hour less sleep on the plane. For my "troubles" I was given a $300 travel voucher with United...for a flight that only cost $220 round-trip.

But that's not all; Delta credited my SkyMiles account with 3,800 miles, and United gave me all of the MileagePlus credit for a complete round-trip...that's a 67% bonus in award miles!

Update: After the experience, I ran into a great article on the topic:
Guide to Being Bumped (or Not)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/travel/10pracbump.html