And where do you think Delta gets those seats? Remember, weather and mechanical issues rarely impact just one person, they are impacting dozens, hundreds or thousands. They are able to accommodate those people on later flights in part because they are betting that a certain number of people won't show up for that flight.

If your idea was law or policy, it could be days before Delta was able to accommodate standby or IRROP passengers on some routes because flights are leaving with multiple empty seats that someone paid for and didn't use. I'm sorry but it is just flat out common sense that after a certain point, if someone doesn't show up, they are no longer claiming that seat and the airline can do as they see fit with it.

Again though, overbooking has absolutely nothing to do with this situation as there is no indication the flight was overbooked so that is a completely different discussion.

That said, there are far more pros than cons when it comes to overbooking. If an airline wants to make a little extra money on the side while keeping air fares down, who am I to tell them to stop? We both win. Ultimately, overbooking impacts less than one tenth of one percent of all air travelers across all airlines in the United States on a yearly basis. Less than one tenth of one percent. We don't need some massive overhaul of the system because less than one tenth of one percent of air travelers are negatively impacted by overbooking.