Over the past week, Delta Air Lines has encountered epic travel delays after unprecedented storms forced the cancellation of thousands of flights.

This weekend, my family and I profited from Delta’s travel woes — big time. We made $11k. Here’s how we did it and why I’m not such a snob about getting bumped any more.

I travel a lot for my career, and when I’m headed somewhere, I want to get there. As a travel editor, I’ve run stories about people who make a profession out of getting bumped by the airlines. And yet, I’ve always quietly scoffed at travelers who would give up a seat on a flight in exchange for a voucher. Not my thing.

On Friday morning, I was flying from New York City to Florida with my husband and daughter. The bad weather had passed, so I thought we had escaped the wrath.

After hours of delays, Delta Airlines started offering money for volunteers to give up their tickets on our overbooked flight, which had 60 (sixty!) standby passengers hoping to get a seat. I didn’t flinch. My husband and daughter and I were headed to Fort Lauderdale to see our relatives, and — as far as I was concerned — nothing would hold us back.

When the compensation for volunteers got to $900 a ticket in gift cards (American Express, Target, Macy’s and so on), my husband convinced me to consider the offer. I thought it was too low to delay our vacation, but our plans were flexible, so I said I was open to the idea. My husband approached the gate agent and offered to give up our seats for $1,500 apiece. She countered: $1,350 each.

Other frustrated passengers were yelling at the staff and crying over vexed travel plans. Somehow, when an airline is offering you and your family $4,050, missing a flight doesn’t seem so bad. We could have also scored a free hotel room near the airport and complimentary dinner, but we live about 20 minutes from LaGuardia, so we volunteered to give up our seats and headed home with a big chunk of change in American Express gift cards and confirmed seats for a Saturday flight.

I have been a loyal Delta customer for years. The airline has one of the best track records in the industry. In fact, CNN recently reported that Delta went 161 straight days without a cancellation in 2016 — including disruptions due to both maintenance and weather.

The staff handled the situation seamlessly and professionally. My husband and I kept saying to each other: “This was the best travel day ever!” Making more than $4,000 on Friday didn’t hurt, mind you.

When I went to check in online on Saturday and saw that the flight was delayed by more than an hour and that Delta was already asking for volunteers to give up their seats, I turned to my husband and said, “Cha-ching!”

Indeed, when we got to the airport, the airline started offering money to volunteers…$300…$600…$900…$1,000…$1,300. Bingo! We took the offer. The airline ended up giving us two gift cards at $1,300 each and (surprise!) a third at $1,350. Delta also threw in lunch ($15 each) and round-trip taxi fare (worth about $50). That’s more than $4,000, if you factor in everything. The airline assured us that we would get confirmed seats on Sunday.

I felt a bit guilty making so much money off the situation, but other passengers pointed out that we were freeing up seats for people who really needed to get somewhere. Many passengers actually thanked us for doing this.

After our flight departed, we waited. And waited. And waited. But the airline was still struggling to figure out the rebooking and get us three confirmed seats the next day. We found out that standby passengers were being told that Delta flights to Florida were fully booked (in fact, overbooked) until Tuesday. We were drained, and suddenly our long-weekend trip was looking far less appealing.

So when we suggested to the gate agent that we might be open to volunteering our seats again by cancelling the trip altogether, the offer was met with smiles and another $1,000 per person in advance compensation. Delta sweetened the deal by refunding the cost of the three plane tickets. We accepted Delta’s offer and went home, sad to miss our trip, but not so sad about the lucrative results.

Granted, it didn’t work out for many other travelers. Over the course of two days, we heard horror stories about families with little kids sleeping at the airport and people missing weddings and funerals. No gift card will compensate for life interruptions like that. (And my own father is still stuck in Indianapolis as I write this.) But we can’t complain.

Do the math — my family and I were given exactly $11,000 in American Express gift cards, plus a little extra in food and taxi vouchers. And because we were staying with family and didn’t need to cancel a hotel or car rental, it didn’t cost us anything besides our time (and a missed trip).

A recent study from MileCards.com analyzed data from the Department of Transportation’s March 2017 Air Travel Consumer Report and determined that Delta is the airline most likely to pay people for volunteering their seats, compensating 10 out of every 10,000 bumped passengers. But according to the Department of Transportation, it’s pretty rare: In 2016, only 6.6 out of every 10,000 passengers became volunteers who earned compensation for taking another flight or cancelling their plans.

Still, one gate agent confessed that there are people who take the art of bumping very seriously and make thousands upon thousands of dollars. And now, I understand it. I really do. I’m already starting to think about how I can get bumped off other flights. This could be a new career.

Read on for 10 things to know about getting bumped from a plane, some ways to increase your chances — and how to get compensated handsomely. And for more tips on how to game the airlines, check out these tips from professional travel hackers.

1. Consider the timing. Airlines routinely overbook flights with the assumption that a certain percentage of passengers will cancel. Flights during busy travel seasons (hello spring break!) and the last flight of the day are more likely to be overbooked. In that case, the airline will ask for volunteers to give up their seats or bump passengers to another flight.

2. Know your rights. The U.S. Department of Transportation requires airlines to compensate you by law if you’re bumped off a plane, even if you’re bumped involuntarily. Insist on being paid. If your delay doesn’t exceed an hour and the airline puts you on another flight, you’re not entitled to compensation. Be aware that the rules go out the window with weather-related delays or delays for safety reasons; rules also vary outside the U.S. Whatever you do, don’t arrive at your gate late. The airlines can use this as a way to avoid compensating you. I saw this happen to a family of four who lingered at the restaurant too long and lost their seats when they weren’t at the gate 15 minutes before departure time. The airline gave away their seats to people on the standby list. No gift cards for them. (And probably no vacation, either.)

3. Do your research. If your flight still has available seats, it probably won’t get overbooked. If the flight is close to full or sold out, there are increased odds that the airline will bump passengers.

4. Ask! When you get to the gate, head straight to the agent and see if the airline is looking for volunteers. Tell them you only want to give up your seat for a good offer.

5. Don’t stray too far from the podium. You don’t want to miss the call for volunteers and you want to be the first person to volunteer when the gate agent offers a good figure.

6. Be careful. A guy on one of our flights said he might be interested in volunteering when he wasn’t really sure. The gate agent took that at face value and gave his seat away. He changed his mind and regretted it, but it was too late. If the airline doesn’t end up needing as many seats, it can also break up families. Once you volunteer, the airline can take away your seat — and make your partner or child fly without you.

7. Don’t get too greedy. Some airlines (as we encountered with Delta) conduct auctions. The airline will give preference to people who volunteer for less.

8. Consider the form of compensation. Some airlines offer travel vouchers; some offer cash or gift cards. Think about what makes most sense. Some flight vouchers expire within a year; some gift cards expire even sooner. Cash is the best bet, if you can get it.

9. Don’t check luggage. My suitcase went to Fort Lauderdale without me. Same thing happened to another family, whose luggage was filled with frozen Passover dishes (they said that their $5,000+ in compensation was sufficient to let the food spoil). The airline says I will get my suitcase back, and I am hopeful. Lesson learned: Fly with carryon bags. It makes it easier if you get rerouted or cancel the flight.

10. Above all, be nice! After hanging out at the counter for hours and hours over the course of two days, I began to notice some trends. Screaming doesn’t work. Crying doesn’t work. Being nice? Now, that works. My husband bought lunch for a couple of gate agents who mentioned that they had worked through their break. I brought water to another agent who said he had come to work at 3 a.m. to help out and was dehydrated. These airline employees went above and beyond to help us out. And that’s good karma.

Update: On 4/10/17, statistics from the Department of Transportation’s March 2017 Air Travel Consumer Report were added to this story.

Thanks for stopping by, come back again, John Free Range Explorer.