TikToker Earns Nearly $5,000 in Credits and Free Vacation After Taking Advantage of Oversold American Airlines Flight

One fortunate American Airlines passenger is taking full advantage of an opportunity to rack up as much money as she can in travel vouchers, all while inside of Naples Airport in Italy. 

Freelance photographer and TikTok influencer Susan Berry, 36, was looking to fly home to Philadelphia following a work trip on August 4. Because the American Airlines flight was overbooked, attendants offered $1,200 in flight credits, a four-star hotel, and free three-course meals to a passenger willing to give up their seat.

Berry accepted the offer, seeing no urgent need to fly home due to her lenient freelance schedule. She was among nine passengers who were off the flight to Philadelphia that day.

The photographer started to document her impromptu adventure on TikTok (@berryfacecreative) dubbing her adventure "Camp American Airlines" as it reminded her of "a day camp with strangers".

Berry also noted that the hotel she was assigned to was "nicer" than the one she originally stayed at during her work trip.

The volunteers were shuttled back to the airport the following day where they would get the chance to fly home again. But with the likelihood of American Airlines not being aware of these passengers needing to get home, the next flight was overbooked.

The opportunity then dawned on Berry that she could stay in Italy with free lodging and food while also racking up thousands in travel vouchers. So she accepted to take the offer when it came and upped her voucher value to $2,400.

"I think they’re overbooked for a while and I heard through the grapevine that they were, so that’s when I started thinking about…I could do this [for] a few days and rack up some good vouchers," Berry told Fox News Digital.
 

Berry's streak continued for a third day where her flight to Philadelphia was overbooked once again and accumulated a total of $4800 in flight vouchers (https://www.instagram.com/p/C-csyYuuMmZ/).

She was hopeful she could keep this going until August 15, where at that point she would earn nearly $15,000 in AA travel fares. With the major holiday Ferragosto attracting millions of tourists to Italy for the month of August, it seemed like a very attainable goal.

"I was mentally prepared to stay for two weeks," Berry told Good Morning America.

However, she wasn't as lucky to get overbooked a fifth time, so she had to go home after an extra five days in Italy.

Berry's Next Adventure

Despite her goal being cut short, Berry was still very satisfied with the compensation she received in travel fares and was excited to document where she would go next using her new AA credits.

After several teaser videos, Berry revealed she was first headed to Las Vegas. During her interview with Fox News Digital, she was also interested in traveling to Hawaii, Rio De Janeiro, and the Caribbean for great places to capture photographs.

Being overbooked for four days in a row on the same route is quite a rare feat with airlines, so it was very fortunate that Berry's lifestyle and willingness to get more vouchers allowed for her to stay as long as possible. Five days at the airport certainly can go a long way to help Berry travel more for free. According to American Airlines, travel credit expires one year from the purchase of tickets (https://www.aa.com/i18n/customer-service/payment-options/travel-credit.jsp).

What do you think of this opportunity for free travel vouchers? Does it seem like a good idea to do it on purpose? Sound off in the comments section below!