My brother just flew to Vancouver last week. Since he wanted to go back a day or so later, he offered to become a volunteer to be bumped to the next flight at the time of check-in. (Not asking any compensation or upgrade).

Well, to his surprise, CX said if he wasn't flying on the day (30th, Aug), he wouldn't be flying for a while. In fact, they mentioned that they've been super busy on HKG-YVR route for past weeks, and it's completely fully over-booked to 21st of September or so.

Eh... nearly 4 weeks of badly oversold flights on a city served by 2 direct CX flights? Is this normal? Is the condition the same for other Gateways like SFO and LAX?