The entire article is a good read if you have time.

Don’t reaccommodate me, bro

".....A flight coupon of $300 or $500 is not worth it to me. But $1200 might be. I know an economist who likes to get bumped on oversold flights, but what he does is write a much larger figure than offered (like $800 of more) on a slip of paper, and hand it to a gate agent or flight attendant (he has done this more than once on a flight he has already boarded, like the man in Chicago). His offer is almost always accepted, since the gate agents have discretion and are in a hurry to get the thing done. In this situation in Chicago, the airline’s last resort should have been to hold an onboard auction, open to all passengers, raising the bid until they got enough volunteers. Even if the price had to go to $3,000, it would be a bargain compared to what United is now going to face.

P.S. It was the late, great Julian Simon who first came up with the compensation scheme for bumped passengers. I can only imagine what Julian would be saying today if he was still with us."

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/04/dont-re-accommodate-me-bro.php