Originally Posted by
WineCountryUA
The IDB risk on UA has managed it to 1 per 1,000,000 for JANUARY - MARCH 2025 (AA >50x more likely but still rare, less than 1 per 10,000). DL was 0 for the same time frame.
Also, although UA's IDB policy as stated in the CoC is a bit vague my interpretation is that a passenger with a seat assignment but without status has a higher likelihood of IDB than a passenger with status but without a seat assignment
- Boarding Priorities - If a flight is Oversold, no one may be denied boarding against his/her will until UA or other carrier personnel first ask for volunteers who will give up their reservations willingly in exchange for compensation as determined by UA. If there are not enough volunteers, other Passengers may be denied boarding involuntarily in accordance with UA’s boarding priority:
- Passengers who are Qualified Individuals with Disabilities and their Service Animal or travel assistant, unaccompanied minors under the age of 18 years, or minors between the ages of 5 to 14 years who use the unaccompanied minor service, and for Canada departures only, families traveling together, will be the last to be involuntarily denied boarding if it is determined by UA that such denial would constitute a hardship.
- The priority of all other confirmed passengers may be determined based on a passenger’s fare class, itinerary, status of frequent flyer program membership, whether the passenger purchased the ticket under select UA corporate travel agreements, and the time in which the passenger presents him/herself for check-in without advanced seat assignment.
Anecdotally the last time I'm personally aware of an IDB occurring it was such an uncommon event that it evidently took while to figure out had the keys to the cabinet with the checks in it, then it turned out the checks were so old that they had a lower maximum endorsement ("not valid for more than $xx") than set forth in current IDB requirements so multiple checks had to be written to reach the IDB amount for each passenger -- and in that case, IIRC, it was the tail end of some systematic disruption and several deadheading crews being flagged as "must ride".