In message .com, at
23:27:56 on Wed, 14 Oct 2009, MC remarked:

A colleague flying Business Class on United got bumped Saturday (flight
cancelled) and had to wait 24hrs for the next flight.

But, for the premium paid to travel first class

Business class.

and for the fact that it was not his fault, did the airline look after
him?

A free hotel room for 24hrs, and half the weekend trashed. (It was a her,
incidentally).

If operating within the EU, compensation is also payable.

In your colleague's case, the minimum they should have expected would have
been a seat on the next flight home, hotel accommodation as necessary

They got those.

and compensation set down by EU regulations. These are the minimum
every passenger should expect when the flight originates in the EU.

But the flight didn't involve the EU.

Why was she bumped. If it was due to overbooking, the way airline bump will
depend on the the type of ticket (flexible or budget), frequent flyer
membership, class of travel etc. I am surprised that you colleague was not
offered a seat in economy and some compensation. They would then bump an
economy passenger to make room.

"Bumping" perhaps not quite the right word. The entire flight was
cancelled (I did say that above), but I don't know the reason.

There seems to be no
incentive to volunteer being bumped on a budget airline though.

Most budget airlines claim they don't overbook, and I've never seen it
happen, even when flights are completely full. KLM-UK on the other hand,
was always bumping people when it was busy coming back from AMS to the
UK; and a different colleague got bumped out of Business Class *both*
ways on a long haul to South America (Iberia I think) a couple of years
ago. Was offered a choice of an economy seat instead, or a flight the
next day. Chose the first option on the way out, the second coming back.
--
Roland Perry