Originally Posted by
FlyngSvyr
As a practical matter, if the definition of boarding was as you have written could you imagine the ramifications for air travel. Airlines would be forced to not board an entire plane until over-booking situations were worked out in advance. Flights would leave late. Or the last persons to reach the door would be denied entry. Or, airlines would be forced to keep x percent of seats empty on flights and fares would be increased to compensate for the empty seats, etc.
Just trying to be a realist that this a business they are running and changing the rules has an effect on everyone. The current IDB protocol seems to be good compromise for most airlines.
Even the current IDB protocol should be limited to only before boarding starts. This gives incentives for the GAs to sort it out as early as possible. Once boarding starts, any checked-in passenger should be allowed to retain his/her seat. It seems extremely shortsighted that the GAs didn't know there were four employees that needed a seat on this flight and waited until all the pax were on board to resolve the issue.
If the flight needs additional seats after boarding starts, then they should do so only through VDB offers. Had this been the policy, this would have been a non-issue on this flight since GAs would have kept upping the offer and surely someone will go for it in the mid-$1000s. I just think that using IVDB to bump pax on the last flight of the day, let alone a Sunday night when people need to get to work the next day, is poor use of discretion by the GAs.