FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - How do airlines calculate on how many tickets to oversell?
Old Nov 16, 2010 | 7:13 pm
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Originally Posted by amejr999
Not sure if they do this or not, but I suspect some do. If they can sell a last-minute ticket for $1000, I bet the airline would, if they think they can VDB someone for only $400 (for example) compensation.
Not really. If a computer is showing 0 (zero) seats available, an agent cannot sell a seat. The computer will not allow it.

There may be carriers which guarantee a seat to passengers of certain status. In this case, a supervisor with a 'higher' computer sign would have to sell the seat. This is not done too often and the reason for doing it has far more to do with status than money.
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