[valo403]

Originally Posted by Canehdianman

Reminds me of the time my entire extended family (21 of us) each took $600 cash from Air Canada to stay in Hawaii an extra 2 days.

They must have been extremely overbooked because they started off offering $300 a person, and then upped it to $600.

We called the place we had been staying at and asked if we could book for another 2 days, they said sure.

Was a fantastic extended vacation!

That would have been covered by US federal law as the the flight originated in the US. Pretty solid system in the US actually:

* If you are bumped involuntarily and the airline arranges substitute transportation that is scheduled to get you to your final destination (including later connections) within one hour of your original scheduled arrival time, there is no compensation.

* If the airline arranges substitute transportation that is scheduled to arrive at your destination between one and two hours after your original arrival time (between one and four hours on international flights), the airline must pay you an amount equal to 200% of your one-way fare to your final destination that day, with a $650 maximum.

* If the substitute transportation is scheduled to get you to your destination more than two hours later (four hours internationally), or if the airline does not make any substitute travel arrangements for you, the compensation doubles (400% of your one-way fare, $1300 maximum).

* If your ticket does not show a fare (for example, a frequent-flyer award ticket or a ticket issued by a consolidator), your denied boarding compensation is based on the lowest cash, check or credit card payment charged for a ticket in the same class of service (e.g., coach, first class) on that flight.

* You always get to keep your original ticket and use it on another flight. If you choose to make your own arrangements, you can request an "involuntary refund" for the ticket for the flight you were bumped from. The denied boarding compensation is essentially a payment for your inconvenience.

http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/publi...tm#overbooking