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Comment by linkregister | Hacker News Reader

Vouchers like that are egregious.

Now that it's too late, United is now offering up to $10k if they can't get someone to volunteer for less.

I don't understand why there even is a limit. What happens if nobody takes the 10k? Someone gets beaten up again? If they are certain someone will leave for 10k why have the limit at all?

For $10k, you could probably charter a private plane. So unless every single passenger on the plane is a doctor flying out for an emergency brain transplant, there'd be no rational reason to decline it. For $100k, you could probably buy a small plane.

If they leave the plane docked until somebody agrees, then you could end up in a situation where you get to your destination slower if you stubbornly refuse. Then, you could argue that it's in their best interest to (beat them up if they don't move).

My objection wasn't even over booking. My objection was eviction after the passenger already sat down. To me, that was the unredeemable act. I'm also ashamed that the police department apparently did not accept responsibility. We often talk about how it is a systemic problem when we accidentally run rm -rf in production and find out none of our backups work but we turn around and say "Oh surely the police department is full of good hard working people if it weren't for a couple of bad apples" and completely throw some people under the bus. No, the organization has life of its own and things won't change if heads don't roll at the top.

Up to 10k in vouchers. I don't even know how someone with a non-travel job would use that many coupons in a year.

A lot more easily when you realize what a Y-class economy fare costs (Boston to Hawaii next week? $2700+)...

Vouchers are typically only valid for full fare unrestricted economy fares or better, not V-class discount fares (display details when you browse your next flight).

This is simply not true...I've gotten these vouchers and used them and sure as hell wasn't buying y-class tickets.

You could trivially spend it on a single international holiday if you felt like flying in business or first class...

Actually no, you can't, because they limit how much you can apply to a single flight. To use up $10k in vouchers, it's likely you'd need to make 20-100 flights, before they expired in a year.

Where is this information coming from?

I've received large (not $10k) vouchers from major airlines before, and the only restriction is the expiration date.

They are effectively the same as cash for that airline, and I have yet to see a VDB voucher that is significantly restricted.

Airlines do give away a lot of "good will" certificates during irrops (e.g. weather events) to upset customers, which function more like coupons than traditional vouchers.

I'm happy to be proven wrong, but checking with a few friends who between us fly all the major US carriers - VDB vouchers are effectively airline cash with an expiration date.

Like the other reply you got, I've received a multi-thousand (but not $10k) voucher from United before and the only restriction was use within a year. I also didn't have to use on a single flight, but could use the full value on one flight if I wished (which I did, flew paid business, but was upgraded to first to APAC).

Ugh, please don't make unfounded claims like that.

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