Get Bumped and Earn
If you can afford to delay your arrival at your chosen destination (perfect for those who are staying with friends and do not have hotel booking fee/cancellations to consider), you might want to consider to be voluntarily inconvenienced in order to EARN MONEY. This little trick might even help finance part of your vacation expenses.
How? By volunteering to get bumped.
With all the people travelling this summer season, the peak of travel season, chances are, airlines have been overbooking their flights. And with flights that are overbooked, airlines have no choice but to bump (deny people from boarding the plane) people from several flights because there is just not enough seats for all the people they have booked.
Voluntary bumping means that you raise your hand and volunteer to take a later flight. This goodwill entitles you to a compensation (cash or travel voucher).
If and when you do have plans of volunteering to get bumped, it would be best to make sure that you do get a confirmed flight/seat for a later flight. It would also be less of a hassle to only have a carry-on baggage as this would prevent problems of tracking your checked-in luggages which would have gone out with the first flight.