Originally Posted by
DougL
OK, but my question was, how do airplane flights get oversubscribed? Is the presumption that some fraction won't show up? But you don't know that until boarding time. That is, if it's going to cost you, as an airline, to get people to reschedule, why do you overbook in the first place? But yes, $25 to reschedule just ain't serious.
Most airlines overbook because they have years of data showing that some people don’t show up, cancel at the last minute, or miss a connection. They know that it is cheaper to very occasionally offer someone some money to voluntarily take a later flight than to not oversell. It’s fairly rare these days to actually see someone collect a voluntary or involuntary denied boarding compensation.
As for why they offer $25 and whether it works, see discussion in the other thread.
And welcome to Flyertalk!