Originally Posted by
Jim Kohl
While it is true that this has been an industry-wide practice for years, didn't it get started in a time when passengers could cancel their reservation and get their money back? This led to passengers booking on several flights, taking one and leaving the airline with open seats on the others.
That is no longer true. Today passengers are charged for unused tickets. Since the basis for allowing airlines to overbook has ended (or, at least diminished) shouldn't allowing the airlines to overbook also end?
Alternatively, why not offer tickets that guarantee the purchaser a seat?
Plenty of airlines offer fares that can be refunded or if cancelled receive a full or partial credit (after change / cancellation fees). Yes, there are LCC that do not, but they don't make up the entire market share.