Delta pays passengers $3,000 each not to fly on flight from Chicago to Seattle
Airlines strive to fill their aircraft as often as possible. So much so that overbooking is a commonplace practice, as airlines aim to maximize loads and minimize empty seats and lost revenue. However, operational requirements also mean that occasionally, airline flights leave with empty seats. One such recent incident became particularly lucrative for two Delta Air Lines customers flying from Chicago O’Hare Airport (ORD) to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on April 21, 2025, after they were offered $3,000 to remove themselves from a flight and travel on a later service.
The incident came at the end of the busy 2025 Easter weekend, as millions of travelers headed home after the holidays and took to the airways across the US to return to work and school. According to reports, the incident unfolded as passengers took their seats onboard a Delta Airbus A220 operating a flight (flight number DL2041) from Chicago to Seattle, one of the carrier’s hub airports.
GCmap.comWith boarding almost complete, Delta’s operational team on the ground in Chicago identified an aircraft weight issue, which required the offloading of several passengers so that the aircraft fell under its maximum take-off weight and could continue to fly to Seattle.
Initially, volunteers still seated at the gate were offered $1,700 in compensation to volunteer to take a later flight to Seattle. While there was some take-up among those few passengers still awaiting to board, the airline staff then had to try to tempt two additional passengers already in their seats on the aircraft to deplane.
With the scheduled departure time of the flight looming, the Delta ground staff knew they had to “up their game” to get people to remove themselves from the flight. According to the travel website PYOK, a staff member boarded the plane and announced that the airline was “looking for two volunteers to deplane due to fuel rebalancing issues. Compensation is $3,000.”
Austin Deppe / ShutterstockAccording to a post on the social media platform Reddit, one particular passenger said, “I didn’t even think, I just threw my hand up. I boarded with Zone 2, grabbed my seat in row 10, and settled in. Then a gate agent walks up to the front of first class, no microphone, no big announcement, and casually drops what sounded like a travel myth. I barely even processed it before my hand was in the air. No hesitation. I wasn’t letting anyone else beat me to it. Another passenger raised their hand right after,” the poster added. “No delays. No drama. Just a perfectly-timed raised hand,” they concluded.
Delta’s compensation was provided through the carrier’s Choice Benefits portal, with payments split between two vouchers – one for a $2,000 credit and one for a $1,000 credit. Recipients could convert these vouchers to various gift cards or Delta flight credits, effectively receiving $3,000 in value for taking a later flight.
While asking people to voluntarily offload themselves from flights where overbooking has occurred or there is another operational issue, airlines normally offer compensation of much lower amounts, usually hundreds, not thousands of dollars. However, such requests are normally made at the gate before the commencement of boarding, as it is significantly more difficult to get people to volunteer once they are seated on the aircraft waiting to depart.
HarrisonKim1 / ShutterstockThe unusually high level of compensation could be taken as an indicator of the airline’s urgency to get the flight to depart as close to schedule as possible. The aircraft involved went on to depart from Chicago just 18 minutes behind schedule at 08:09 and landed in Seattle at 10:08, 22 minutes ahead of schedule.
The aircraft (registered N130DU) subsequently went on to operate three more sectors that day from Seattle to San Diego to Seattle and finishing up in Austin, all of which would have been delayed had the airline not acted to quickly (and generously) to get the aircraft away from Chicago almost on time on its first flight of the day.
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The post Delta pays passengers $3,000 each not to fly on flight from Chicago to Seattle appeared first on AeroTime.
Airlines strive to fill their aircraft as often as possible. So much so that overbooking is a commonplace…
The post Delta pays passengers $3,000 each not to fly on flight from Chicago to Seattle appeared first on AeroTime.
