Playing the voluntary...
OK, so I'm still in San Francisco, as are nineteen other would-be pax from today's VS020 -- which was hideously overbooked. There was quite a lot of chaos going on at gate A8, and if the rumours are true there was the same yesterday and there'll be the same again tomorrow. SF is full of Brits going home. Or, in my case, not going home but wandering down Columbus being naughty.
Nevetheless, a good deal: overnighted and a free return flight to anywhere on the Virgin network. "Ah, but not Sydney" said one of the other non-pax as we trundled back to the Holiday Inn. "They definitely told me not Sydney".
They definitely didn't tell me any such thing, and as I have a friend in Oz I can't afford to visit otherwise this is a bit of a downer. Does anyone know what the standard deal is? I was a bit surprised at how messy the whole business of voluntarily being bumped was - they must do it a lot of the time, but nobody seemed to know what to do with the various forms, what to do with the visa counterfoils (I retrieved mine from behind the desk: everyone else, I fear, has now officially left the US despite being here) or what would happen tomorrow when we turn up for our deferred flight with absolutely no documentation whatsoever.
When I've gone through the same business with BA, it's been a lot smoother - and cash in hand rather than vague promises.
Meanwhile, I have a decision to make. If those rumours are true, then I stand a good chance of repeating the exercise tomorrow and gathering a second freebie - which means me and the equally impoverished missus can go gallivanting across the globe (Sydney or no). The only thing that would put me off, Monday being a bank holiday and all, is the thought of having to survive another session with SF airport security...
R