Man turns down $10,000 offer from Delta to give up seat on oversold flight

Delta Airlines recently offered passengers on an oversold flight $10,000 to give up their seats. While many took the cash and ran, one man declined, opting instead to remain seated with his party of eight.

The airline even offered to send people the money via Apple Pay, making the transaction instant.

Tech columnist Jason Aten says he and his family boarded their flight from Grand Rapids, Michigan to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and soon after, a flight attendant came on the intercom offering passengers $10,000 to give up their seats.

As Fortune reports, Alten noted that he was originally unsure as to how many volunteers were needed, and not wanting to split up his group, declined.

He later found out that Delta was looking for eight people, which would have yielded a combined $80,000, but by then nearly half the offers had been snatched up.

"Had we known it was eight, we would have gotten off," he said.

When asked about whether his family had any second thoughts about turning down the offer, Alten said, in good spirits, "Don't ask my wife that question."

He wrote about the experience after the fact, praising Delta for how they handled things.

"Your job is to take care of your customers," he said of airlines. "Sometimes bad things happen, sure, but when you overpromise, the solution should never be to underdeliver. The solution should be to go above and beyond to make it right. That's basically what Delta did in this case."

He acknowledged that $10,000 is "a lot of money," but noted that "it was clearly better than forcing eight people to miss their connections and ruining their plans."

Delta, along with most other airlines, have faced challenges as of late due to understaffing and pilot strikes as traveling picks up following the COVID-19 pandemic.

This Fourth of July weekend, thousands of flights have been cancelled, and airlines are warning passengers to plan for unexpected delays.