Let us make all first class tickets non refundable and then guarantee a no -overbooking policy. Any takers???
By the way when I started off in this industry more than a decade back, the first case I came accross of bumping in first was on---- BA!
So hardly mind boggling news this one !!!! I would say they woke up much earlier than others!
And ofcourse - the choice is always there - you can always risk having half empty first class cabins and end up by having first removed altogether - as many airlines have done!!!
It is not that I dont sympathise with rmac, but being on the other side of the fence, I also understand that sometimes there have to be ruthless economic decisions as well! Just like Ryan Air or Easy Jet has become "My (employer's) favourite airline", it all comes to this one word "Profit".
Overbooking , even on first has become more or less standard pratice nowadays. Mostly as F3G said , the predictive modelling works,- when it does not - then it becomes news!
Cheers