Originally Posted by
desi
This must be difficult for airlines and especially high paying elite fliers to swollow.
But consider this...
Airlines say that they overbook because some people never show up.
These are pax with flexible or refundable tickets.
Pax with non-refundable tickets have already made commitment. Their seats are paid for whether they come or not and hence airlines can not complain about lost revenue because of them not showing up.
So how about making regulations prohibiting IDB of anyone with non-refundable tickets? (let them volunteer for VBD if they want)
The argument that the flight is already paid applies to exEU style fare rules that say no voluntary changes ever.
However, the typical discounted ticket sold in the USA has a change fee of $200 for domestic and $250-450 for international; usually policy is that if you cancel rather than directly making changes, you get a voucher but of course are still a subject to the change fee. To complicate the situation, tickets have started to appear where the fare rules say that they're refundable but with a fee. There are also a few tickets that are changeable without a fee but not refundable.
A bad unintended consequence could be that all exUSA tickets (perhaps except for FULL Y, FULL J, and FULL F) become totally unchangeable like those in Europe.
People with last minute purchases and/or changeable/refundable tickets are likely to be those traveling on business. Often for such passengers, it's extremely important to fly the chosen flights (or it becomes a trip in vain). There would be a huge outcry if the most expensive tickets (and those most likely to be purchased by elites) were most likely to face IDBs.