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United Airlines recently faced an overbooking situation on a flight to Las Vegas, necessitating the removal of 14 passengers. Despite all seats being sold and occupied, weight restrictions—likely due to hot weather—required the airline to reduce the number of passengers.
In an announcement, United Airlines stated: "For your safety at this time, after calculating the numbers, we called our dispatch. We do need 14 passengers off the aircraft and for the rest of you passengers onboard that don’t want to volunteer, I just want to make you aware we’re kind of racing the clock here with your crew. If we don’t meet that time frame, unfortunately, we will have to deplane the entire aircraft. I want to apologize in advance. If I have 14 volunteers, $2,500 in travel credit apiece."
The airline began offering 'bump vouchers' worth $2,500 each for future travel credits to encourage volunteers. This amounted to a total offer of $35,000 for 14 passengers on a single flight.
