Originally Posted by
OFFlyer
How many tickets their are willing to "oversell" is based on quite a number of factors, including route, time of day, time of year, etc.
And not to forget: number of connecting pax and possibility to move them to a later flight.
Station manager at ORD told me some years ago that it was not unusual to have 20-30 no-show on the ORD-ARN-flight due to late incoming transfer-pax which had to be put on the CPH-flight.