Woman Takes Compensation on Overbooked Plane, Then Does ‘Walk of Shame’

A woman who thought she struck gold with an offer to take a later flight in exchange for a monetary compensation was forced to do a “walk of shame” back to her seat when someone got there before her.
Frances, from the U.S., shared a video of the “embarrassing” moment to her TikTok account @franceswangTV. It began with her in her seat, her hand over her mouth and laughing at herself, saying: “I am in tears.”
“Guys I just had the most embarrassing experience on American Air in front of the whole plane,” she wrote over the clip. Newsweek has contacted American Airlines for comment.
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Frances said she gets “very excited easily,” and when an announcement came over the intercom that they were offering a $1,200 voucher if someone took another flight, she literally jumped at the chance.
“Without even thinking, I’m like, ‘I’ll take it!'” Frances says in the video. “I’m so excited that, as I’m walking down the aisle everyone is, like, cheering me on. You would think I just won a million dollars on a game show.”
However, after walking all the way to the front of the plane to accept her voucher and get off the flight, Frances learned that the person who had been overbooked had taken the voucher instead.
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In an unusual twist, Frances then spoke to her seat neighbors for the video, with one man saying: “She was cheered along the way. She made everyone’s day because they were vicariously living through her joy and excitement.”
Another man told the camera: “She had to walk back through the aisle, walk of shame.”
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Frances added in a comment that “in my excitement, I left my backpack in row 23 so I awkwardly had to go up and down the aisle so many times.”
TikTok users loved the clip, which has over 51,000 likes since being shared on August 7, with one writing: “I love the eye witness reports.”
Another called it a “masterpiece with the stranger interviews too,” and a third posted: “Your fellow passengers are such a vibe! They will remember you, bestie.”
There are countless viral stories across the internet of passengers being offered rewards for agreeing to a different flight due to overbooking. One woman recently went viral for recording the moment the financial compensation was higher than she had ever seen it, with the airline also offering a hotel for the night.
On American Airlines’ website, it says, like many airlines, the company overbooks flights. Data shows some people do not cancel reservations when their travel plans change, and the airlines overbook flights instead of risking flying with empty seats, which would potentially lead to rising prices.
Gate agents may ask volunteers to give up their seats in exchange for compensation and a seat on a later flight, or in “extremely rare” occasions, will deny boarding on an involuntary basis, which will usually come with compensation.
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