<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by jetsetter:
Also odd they don't oversell. I would imagine given their leisure travel concentration that they should not have a problem getting volunteers, so why not overbook?</font>
Customer service issues aside, I would venture to guess that since the spread of airfares on B6 is so compressed that overbooking is just not as lucrative. When AA bumps an “L or N” ticket in order to take a “Y” class ticket, the airline makes more money including the cost of transportation voucher and hotels/meals. B6 can’t since they max out at $300 OW. Also when you also take into account the number of "once-a-day" runs B6 makes and very inflexible route structure, the hotel/meal vouchers would pile up too quick.
The counterargument is that WN has the same fare spread and does overbook. While that is true they also run a much more flexible route system that can reroute customers much easier.