Report: Delta Offered Passengers $10K Each to Give Up Seats After Flight Was Overbooked

Passengers on a Delta flight to Minnesota claimed the airline offered them $10,000 to vacate their seats, a Thursday report said.

According to Fortune:

In the end, the hour-long flight departed just 20 minutes later than scheduled from Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, according to Cirium’s flight tracker.

Jason Aten, a tech columnist at Inc. magazine, boarded the plane with his family and was waiting for it to leave the gate when a flight attendant came over the intercom, he wrote earlier this week. The crew was looking for eight volunteers to give up their seats on the apparently oversold flight, offering them $10,000 cash each.

Those with Apple Pay would get their money instantly, the flight attendant allegedly said, according to Aten, who shared part of the story in a social media post on Monday.

A follower replied to his post, writing, “It’s a true story. I was on that flight! 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.”

Hundreds of flights were cancelled over the weekend and on Monday prior to the Fourth of July holiday weekend as more Americans were traveling, Breitbart News reported Tuesday.

“The airlines blame cancellations on pilot and airline staff shortages, and insufficient air traffic controllers on the ground,” the outlet said.

In addition, the airport experience has been less than ideal for travelers in Europe, the Associated Press (AP) reported Monday:

After two years of pandemic restrictions, travel demand has roared back, but airlines and airports that slashed jobs during the depths of the COVID-19 crisis are struggling to keep up. With the busy summer tourism season underway in Europe, passengers are encountering chaotic scenes at airports, including lengthy delays, canceled flights and headaches over lost luggage.

Per the Fortune article, earlier offers were made by the flight’s crew members, and Delta eventually increased the offer to $10,000 when most people had taken their seats.

Following a second reported offer of $10,000, which enough passengers eventually accepted, the flight departed. However, Aten’s group declined.

“The reason we didn’t jump on it was because they didn’t initially say how many volunteers they needed. Had we known it was eight, we would have gotten off. By the time that was clear, four or five people had already left,” he explained.