Originally Posted by
StayingHomeIsBetter
What I described had absolutely nothing to do with overbooking.
Pax X buys the last L fare seat, not sure he is going to need it, but wanting to hedge his bets.
Pax Y, shortly thereafter, has to buy a seat in a higher fare bracket.
Pax X later cancels the reservation.
Pax Y has been hosed just so Pax X can have the convenience of covering all bases with his multiple reservations.
If I am Pax Y, then it is indeed my problem.
Delta considers expected overbooking rates on basically all fare classes sold - not just when it gets into an overbooking situation. Either way, not my problem. I'm paying a $200 penalty (change fee) to reserve a seat on a flight I might not take. That seems reasonable to me. If that isn't enough then they should raise the change fee - not cancelling pax on two reservations (which as noted per CoC they can do). In practice Delta seems fine with this.