Hmmmmmm, I smell a need for ratings. Is it February sweeps yet?
CBC published this article in 2017. Thanks to their efforts, you'd have to be living under a rock not to understand the concept of overbooking.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/air...ited-1.4065603
In terms of the current CBC news item posted by the OP, I'm curious what the motivation was by these current and former agents to talk to the CBC. I'm not disputing that overbooking exists. Airlines admit to it, the CBC says "It's a perfectly legal practice and based on a statistical analysis of previous passenger trends and the number of no-shows in the past. "
I just don't understand the suggestion that at this point in history, consumers who fly are unaware of these things. Even if you don't read the CBC, most people have social media access.
And, while looking at this 2017 article, I note the CBC made it instructional in tone, with section headlines like:
"Why airlines overbook
What if airlines stop overbooking?
What happens when an airline is overbooked
Who gets bumped? (with excellent positioning of a photo of Dr. Dao being dragged off the UA flight)
How much compensation will be offered?
How often does overbooking happen?"
And look, CBC even offers tips for customers:
"What can passengers do to avoid being bumped?"
So, perhaps someone thought the public needed an exposé that focused on crying kids and missed honeymoons. I'm more interested in why CBC felt the need to publish this and of course I loved the quote in today's article that WestJet, "told Go Public it does not "intentionally oversell" seats."