Originally Posted by
meadowrun
Don't think we'll see an end to the practice of overbooking flights. Statistics show there are always a percentage of no-shows and yield management reigns supreme.
Canada is introducing a passenger's rights bill federally but the minister has conceded that over booking is a fact of this business's life and the bill will focus on fair compensation for various results of inconveniences suffered due to circumstances within an airline's control.
On another forum someone posted a link to an article about how many passengers on United and other airlines have been involuntarily bumped off the flight.
42,500 in 5 years - average over 20 a day
Two other airlines have higher pro rata rates, but maybe United is larger, I don't know.
There is also a comparison of voluntary rates. Between the 2 categories United is bumping about 1 in 1000 passengers.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/20...LeL/story.html
Others will know more than me, but I assume that overbooking happens because some business travellers who don't know how long their visit might be are allowed to book a spread of 4 or 5 trips and not pay until they actually choose which one to turn up for.
A few years ago, I saw an airline pilot friend do this with hotels. We arrived a day before him, and because we had 2 or 3 hours to spare in the afternoon we had to drive around them and decide which one he liked (and possibly us too, though in the end the unbooked one we arrived in at 10 pm could let us stay the whole term).