I'm not a frequent flye but I would really appreciate some clarification on this topic. How does an airline selling more than the number of physical seats it has increase efficiency/effectiveness more than if it sold the same number of tickets as the number of seats available? Do they have that big of a problem with people canceling flights? What are the return policies usually for flight tickets?

> Overbooking makes air travel more effective than, with less empty seats and less pollution per passenger

> but you can't argue that it is inherently bad.

You're simplifying things a bit too much.

You can't go from:

- We want to make air travel more cost effective, and less damaging to the environment.

And arrive at:

- The only way to achieve this, is to sell more tickets than we have physical seats for, to ensure the plane is jam packed when it takes off.

There are always alternatives, Americans just seem to be fucking brilliant at ignoring any possible alternative than their first shitty attempt.

What does this have to do with Americans? Overbooking is used by nearly every airline in the world.

I've never heard of any airline overbooking here in Europe. Yet they seem to manage just fine. In fact Ryanair (a budget airline) has a bunch of flights advertised for around €15 ($16~ USD)...

it uses less fuel per passenger to ensure that every flight is jam packed. It's more efficient and everybody wins. There are almost no examples of situations that overbooking + auctions doesn't solve.

I think you don't understand the law as it currently exists, because what happened on that united flight was in clear violation of that law.

They didn't deny the man boarding, they deplaned him. This isn't something the airline is allowed to do for economic reasons, ever.

Can you explain what you mean by the overbooking + auction system? I don't fly often and though the news has left a bitter taste in my mouth about United, I do want to understand how their system works and their flaws in a less biased way.