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Delta Airlines pays woman $4,000 to be bumped from oversold flight

A passenger on an oversold Delta flight from Atlanta to Indiana took a $4,000 offer from the airline to be bumped to a later flight.
A passenger on an oversold Delta flight from Atlanta to Indiana took a $4,000 offer from the airline to be bumped to a later flight. Luis Sinco Los Angeles Times file

One Delta passenger scored big last Friday when the airline oversold her flight from Atlanta to Indiana.

Delta held an auction on board the Sept. 8 flight, packed with college football fans headed to Saturday’s Georgia-Notre Dame game, to find someone willing to be bumped.

But none of the fans on board were willing to take a chance on missing the game. That is, until the bidding reached $4,000 in travel vouchers and Tracy Smith raised her hand.

“They started at $1,500, then $2,000, then $2,200, $2,500, finally the bidding got up to $3,000,” Smith told ABC News. “I looked over at my husband and said you know I really think if they get to $4,000, I’m going to get off this plane. They came back at $4,000 and without a flinch I pressed the flight attendant button.”

Smith, who had boarded the flight with her husband and son to see the big game, told the network that the passenger behind her also volunteered, but the air crew ruled that she’d pushed her button first. She walked off the plane with $4,000 in travel vouchers.

"I felt like I was on a game show … everybody was clapping and cheering and smiling,” she said. Smith boarded a later flight and made it in time to see the game.

Zach Klein, a reporter at WSB-TV, also was on the flight and tweeted about the auction.

The Georgia Bulldogs ended up defeating Notre Dame 20-19, by the way.

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