Sometimes you should take the offer of money. I flew Continental and Sunday night they were offering a comp ticket, hotel, and food vouchers, if you would give up your confirmed flight. I didn’t sign in early enough so I didn’t have a confirmed seat. I asked if I would have a guaranteed flight in the morning and they said yes, so I told them I would take it. I still had to sit around and wait for the flight to leave, which happened more than an hour late. But I, along with two others, got seats, flights, hotels, and meal vouchers.

The people who didn’t take the offer did not even get help from the desk. They had to go somewhere else, call Continental… I don’t know what they got in terms of hotels, but they did NOT get confirmed seats on this morning’s flight. Since there were 14 people who didn’t get on last night, besides the three who took the deal, and this morning’s flight was already full, it was a little crazy. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them are there all day. One guy, who was trying to fly standby, had been at the airport all day yesterday and still didn’t get on this morning.

By the way, if you want to know how to get on an airplane, this is how. You take your standby ticketing and you go to the boarding counter. Then you pay the $50 for a confirmed flight later in the day. If a single seat opens on the plane, you not only get it, you also get priority on an aisle or window. The gentleman I saw do that, who wasn’t going to get on this flight because of the number of standbys, was given an aisle. –I had asked for one first. I was the person who had been bumped last night. But he got the aisle. (It turned out okay. I got a window seat.)