Teen Volunteers to Give Up Seat on Flight—Not Ready for Email He Gets After

A Minnesota father has turned to Reddit after his 18-year-old son volunteered to give up his seat on an overbooked Delta Air Lines flight and never received the $600 credit he was promised.

The incident was recounted on Reddit by user Wanderlusty74, who explained the teen was flying back to college after winter break and connecting from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to Grand Forks, North Dakota.

After the connecting flight was oversold by two seats, gate agents asked for volunteers to give up their seats in exchange for a $600 credit.

The teen agreed, partly because a friend lived nearby in Minneapolis and offered him a ride to Grand Forks instead.

But the credit never appeared in his account.

After filing a complaint, the family received an email from Delta customer care stating that no denied boarding compensation had been issued on the flight and that the teen was not eligible because he was not at the gate.

“He indeed was there, and one other person gave up their seat as well (he does not know who they are) after they made their announcement,” the OP wrote.

“I told him in the future to never give up his seat without a written confirmation from the gate agent. But is there anything that we can do to get him the credit he was promised?”

Reddit users flocked to the comments to weigh in, with one explaining, “When you do this, you have to wait at the gate until the flight departs, then the gate agent will issue the voucher.

“The reason for this is that they want to be sure there aren’t any no-shows. If someone didn’t show up, then your son would’ve gotten a seat, and it wouldn’t have been an oversell.

“If he just left the airport without waiting, then he loses the voucher.”

Another user was more blunt: “You don’t leave without the $600 voucher in hand.”

A Note of Caution

Industry guidance backs up parts of that view. According to travel insurance comparison site Squaremouth, vouchers are commonly issued during overbooking situations and are often delivered digitally, but only after specific conditions are satisfied.

Arden Cove’s travel advisory site states that vouchers are not automatic, noting that acceptance and issuance depend on the airline’s rules and timing.

The OP said that in the future, his son will not give up a seat without written confirmation from a gate agent.

Whether Delta will reverse its decision remains unclear, but the post struck a chord with travelers who said it highlighted how easy it is to walk away from compensation without realizing it.

Newsweek has reached out to Wanderlusty74 and Delta Airlines for comment via Reddit. We could not verify the details of the case.

To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, click here.

Source link