United Airlines incident

[Ponca Dan]

Ignorant people never understand how they're ignorant.

A limo driver can take only ONE passenger; the airline takes MANY SEVERAL per flight. The odds of "some" of those MANY SEVERAL not showing up are, by logical extension, HIGHER. That said, if an airline is in business to make money - duh - how best to improve the bottom line. Bada bing, bada boom: overbook. As I previously posted, "revenue maximization"; empty seats equals lost revenue.

Where I have been confused - and where I remain confused- is the empty seats have been paid for. Paid for by the no shows. So how does the airline lose money? Does the airline give the no shows their money back? If not then they are double dipping if they sell the seat to someone else. And if they are selling the seat to someone else before the no show no shows why isn't that considered fraud? (I get it, it isn't fraud because the airline has publicly stated they are going to sell your seat to someone else: you are told in advance they are going to do that.)

 

[Ponca Dan]

A limo driver can take only ONE passenger; the airline takes MANY SEVERAL per flight. The odds of "some" of those MANY SEVERAL not showing up are, by logical extension, HIGHER. That said, if an airline is in business to make money - duh - how best to improve the bottom line. Bada bing, bada boom: overbook. As I previously posted, "revenue maximization"; empty seats equals lost revenue.

Well, actually a limousine can take more than one passenger, but that's beside the point. The point is about the principle. You paid for a product and got stiffed. Maybe the practice is legal, but would you at least agree with me that it's immoral?

 

[JimmyBob]

Where I have been confused - and where I remain confused- is the empty seats have been paid for. Paid for by the no shows. So how does the airline lose money? Does the airline give the no shows their money back? If not then they are double dipping if they sell the seat to someone else. And if they are selling the seat to someone else before the no show no shows why isn't that considered fraud? (I get it, it isn't fraud because the airline has publicly stated they are going to sell your seat to someone else: you are told in advance they are going to do that.)

It has nothing to do with "empty" seats; it's a full passenger plane "plus" a few more paying passengers. No shows are in the EQUATION as to why the airlines overbook in the first place; not every asshole shows up for his/her/its flight. It will always be cheaper to "buy" the "overbooks" if everyone shows up, than to leave the station with a less than full plane. Once again, revenue MAXIMIZATION!

 

[JimmyBob]

Well, actually a limousine can take more than one passenger, but that's beside the point. The point is about the principle. You paid for a product and got stiffed. Maybe the practice is legal, but would you at least agree with me that it's immoral?

There is no principle here, nor anything to do with morals; it's called business and the general public is well informed as to the airlines' overbooking practices.

 

[JimmyBob]

Note to JD: Please bitch-slap me and my other brothers Darrell for having those last beers. Fear and common sense always rule, but sometimes I forget "that is why I won't do two shows a night":

 

[Ponca Dan]

It has nothing to do with "empty" seats; it's a full passenger plane "plus" a few more paying passengers. No shows are in the EQUATION as to why the airlines overbook in the first place; not every asshole shows up for his/her/its flight. It will always be cheaper to "buy" the "overbooks" if everyone shows up, than to leave the station with a less than full plane. Once again, revenue MAXIMIZATION!

I understand all of that. Originally the argument was the airlines overbooked because they would lose money otherwise. I didn't understand how they were going to lose money. All the seats had been paid for even if nobody showed up. Then the argument moved to the airline was seeking to maximize profits. Who else gets to collect money from more people than they have product? How is that legal? And if it's legal is there a designated percentage of overbooking that's allowed? The TED video said airlines have very detailed mathematical formulas they use. Are they required to use those formulas? Is there a legal limit? They can overbook by 10% but not 100%? And why doesn't everybody that has a product or service do this? Are they prevented by law?

By the way these are questions that flood my brain. I don't expect you to answer them (unless you have the answers!). I find topics like this fascinating and the more I think about them the more questions I have. I'm sure I'm driving everybody else nuts with my obsession.

 

[CowboyJD]

Note to JD: Please bitch-slap me and my other brothers Darrell for having those last beers. Fear and common sense always rule, but sometimes I forget "that is why I won't do two shows a night":

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You see that I bailed.

Not sure why you and orangepride20-whatever jumped in at that point. I hoped you would have learned from my experience.

 

[JimmyBob]

You see that I bailed.

Not sure why you and orangepride20-whatever jumped in at that point. I hoped you would have learned from my experience.

It seemed like a good idea at the moment; once again, hindsight wins!

 

[anon_xl72qcu5isp39]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/17/...ple-put-up-with-to-avoid-united-airlines.html

 

[07pilt]

Does the airline give the no shows their money back?

They usually allow the no shows to take a different flight.

 

[FalseGod]

Interesting note, JetBlue does not overbook. Still possible to get bumped by them for other reasons, but it won't be because of overbooking.