Last month I was on a flight from LaGuardia to Washington, then from Washington on to Dayton. Granted, it was the tiny propeller planes, but the one from DC to Dayton, what has what 21 seats, was over sold by six or eight seats. On top of that, the weather was so warm they had to keep two seats empty, so on a 21 passenger flight, they had to compensate 10 or so of us (I volunteered, the rest were kicking and screaming).

You can't possibly oversell by that amount and expect to make any money. I had a very inexpensive ticket, it cost them an overnight hotel room, and a free flight voucher. That night, which wasn't at all weather related, they were asking for volunteers at pretty much all the gates, all the flights were overbooked. Next day, same thing, the pilot had to do all the calculations to see if the last person could fly or not.

It's by no means a complaint, I wanted the free ticket, but you can't make money that way.