Originally Posted by
Ex Cargo Clown
Yield management is a bit of a "dark art". I remember getting on a flight ex-Rio that was -57 on an ID90. No issue getting on. Some routes were notorious for no-shows, usually in F and J. If you made LHR-JFK a standby route, I wouldn't fancy my chances if it was overbooked.
It's not a dark art at all to those experienced in it. LHR-JFK on BA would be quite a good chance, because one of the more common reasons (of many) is late arrival of an inbound connecting aircraft (or stuck in transit security etc); on a US carrier less so because they have less connecting passengers at the London end, more at the US end.
And it depends when you look. In the morning you may well be grossly over like this. As people rebook onto earlier flights, or tomorrow, or whatever, the numbers change through the hours. Being 50 over on a widebody is nothing unusual on certain routes.