Originally Posted by
saunders111
It is also normal for the airlines to offer seats for sale during irrops that are not available for rebooking of distressed passengers. This practice should be outright banned. If a seat is for sale, then a distressed passenger should able to take it, full stop end of story. "You want to go today? Fine, but you'll have to buy a ticket for today's flight. Your ticket from your cancelled flight will only get you a reservation for next Wednesday."
I think that used to be the case for some Basic Economy fares, but didn't they do away with that? The only exception I know of is literal class of service differences (e.g. they won't rebook an economy pax into business/first unless you get a very generous agent).