A Delta flight attendant on an overbooked flight from Boston to Rome resorted to offering as much as $4,000 in an attempt to persuade more than a dozen passengers into giving up their seats, according to a viral video.
“Come on guys, $3,500,” the flight attendant calls out over the intercom in an auction-style incentive to get someone to take a later flight to the Eternal City.
“You could go shopping via gift card,” the woman added in a sales pitch-like attempt to convince someone to take the voucher, according to the video posted to TikTok last week.
“Who wants to take one for the team? We got you a hotel.”
By the end of the footage, at least two people were seen standing up and walking towards the cockpit.
A caption for the TikTok video said 13 passengers ended up accepting a voucher, according to accountholder “Only in Boston.”
“Thirteen passengers on an overbooked #Delta flight from #Boston to #Rome were given between $2000-$4000 plus hotel rooms to voluntarily give up their seat on the plane due to the flight being overbooked,” the post read.
Representatives for Delta did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
The TikTok has garnered over 350,000 views since it was posted Sept. 18, and an influx of comments include users who said they would’ve nabbed the $3,500 voucher “in a heartbeat!”
“I settled for $800 once from Delta I’d sprint for 3k,” another wrote while an additional user chimed in: “Why does this never happen to me? I could have paid my rent that month.”
Overbooking flights is an unfortunate-yet-common practice as Delta’s Contract of Carriage delineates that the airline “reserves the right to sell more tickets for travel on each flight than there are seats available on the aircraft.”
“Before denying boarding to any passenger holding a confirmed reservation on an oversold flight, Delta will ask other passengers on the flight to voluntarily give up their seat in exchange for compensation in an amount and form to be determined by Delta in its sole discretion,” the Contract of Carriage notes.
Vouchers have been known to run from a couple hundred dollars to as much as $10,000 depending on the circumstance.
Earlier this year, Democratic Sens. Edward Markey and Richard Blumenthal proposed a bill in the Senate that would force airlines to pay passengers who are bumped from an oversold flight at least $1,350.
The bill, called The Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights, was set in motion in the wake of a Southwest Airlines scheduling fiasco that led to 17,000 canceled flights over the 2022 holiday season.
Southwest had said it would reimburse affected passengers for hotels, rental car and dining costs, but later faced lawsuits from at least one passenger for allegedly not making good on the promise, and by shareholders for allegedly hiding operational problems that led to the disintegration.
Passengers with canceled flights may get compensation under the new bill, which has yet to be passed.
Not everyone was on board with the new proposals. Airlines for America, a trade association and lobbying group, issued a statement on the heels of the legislation claiming the law “would decrease competition and inevitably lead to higher ticket prices and reduced services to small and rural communities.”
Lawmakers claimed the proposed regulations would make the skies more friendly and orderly for all.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
