I was waiting for my flight from TPA to NYC this weekend and all of the sudden they announced being overbooked and looking for volunteers to give up their seat for $700.

I hesitated a bit because this is my first time experiencing something like this but eventually a few minutes later I went up to the gate agent to ask if they still needed volunteers. She told me yes and to hang around and don't board yet.

Once all the regular passengers boarded, she told a few other volunteers that came up a bit after me that they can now board too with me being the only one that was left.

She then processed my giftcard and booked me for the next confirmed flight leaving 8 hours later at 7 PM (my original flight that I volunteered to give up was the 11 AM one) but at the same time she put me on a standby flight leaving st 3 PM which I was able to get on.

So all in all felt like a pretty good deal, I'm happy =]. What do you guys think?

Also, if I had not gotten on the standby flight and at my confirm flight the situation occured again where they were overbooked, would I have been able to volunteer again?? Love to hear some of your stories!