Originally Posted by
Antarius
DL also manages to make a lot more money than AA, so clearly this generosity isn't hurting their margins.
The strategy of overbooking more aggressively (it's typical for DL to VDB more passengers in any given month than AA and UA combined deny boarding (whether vol or invol)) and charging extra high fares (to effectively cover the VDB) works well and the fact that everyone walks away from a VDB feeling OK probably contributes a small part to DL's revenue premium.