Long after a flight is sold (0) OUT, airlines continue to oversell tickets. At departure time, if the flight is overbooked and more passengers arrive with confirmed reservations than the airlines 1 seats, the gate attendants will ask passengers to voluntarily 2 up their seats for some form of compensation — 3 cash or a free ticket for use on the same carrier at a later date. The carrier then puts the volunteers 4 the next available flight they have going to that destination. 5 the time, these giveaways probably appear very attractive. However, this type of 'bumping' 6 not regulated and these volunteer bonuses 7 to be negotiable and dependent 8 the gate attendants trying to get the flight off the ground. Still, for travelers with flexible plans, giving up a seat can sometimes turn an inconvenience into a surprising opportunity.