ON a five-day trip to Pennsylvania during the Fourth of July holiday, I was showered with money-saving offers: I could have spent a night in Las Vegas for free, pocketed hundreds in extra cash and rented a full-size car for the price of a compact. My hotel even took $80 off the bill.
It wasn't because of my profession; I was on vacation, and The Times does not accept freebies in any case.
But I also spent a night in a hotel room I didn't want, went toe to toe with a car-rental clerk and fretted over whether I would get to my destination at all.
My fortunes, good and bad, resulted from oversales, when more customers show up than there are seats, cars or rooms. This can happen when companies overbook, accepting extra reservations to compensate for expected no-shows, or through various miscalculations.
Whatever the cause, it seems, customers pay. Or do they?
Companies may try to compensate the inconvenienced; in some cases, they are legally required to. As a result, travelers may be able to lessen their pain or even profit from it, but only if they keep their wits about them and understand their options. Here's a closer look:
* Airlines: Carriers are cagey about the rates of no-shows and how much they overbook. But what happens when they run out of seats is no secret.
Last year 47,774 passengers were bumped from flights and 588,266 volunteered to give up their seats on the 18 largest U.S. airlines, the U.S. Department of Transportation reported. The average rate of denied boardings, 12 per 10,000 customers, was the lowest in 15 years. But it recently increased.
"I foresee more airline overbooking," said Alexander Anolik a travel law attorney in San Francisco, as planes fly fuller and airlines cancel unprofitable routes.
If you're denied boarding on an oversold flight, U.S. carriers, by law, must refund your ticket or let you use it for another flight and they may owe you up to $400; the amount varies by how long you're delayed. For details, go to airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/pubs.htm; under "Other Publications," click on "Fly Rights."
Before bumping anyone from an oversold flight, gate agents must try to get volunteers to give up their seats. Fliers can profit from the free-for-all.
On the LAX-to-Phoenix leg of my trip to Pittsburgh, Southwest offered $200 plus the value of the ticket. In Phoenix, it was a one-night package to Vegas, with a flight out the next day.
