Slashdot Mirror
Why Do Airlines Overbook? (bbc.com)
From a report on BBC: A common overbooking problem on a United Airlines flight on Sunday ended with a man being bloodied and dragged from his seat and an already troubled airline earning more bad press. How did it all go so wrong? Overbooking on flights happens all the time. Empty seats cost airlines money, so they offset the number of passengers who miss flights by selling too many tickets. In this case, the problem arose because United decided at the last minute to fly four members of staff to a connection point and needed to bump four passengers to make way for them. When there's an overbooking issue the first step is to offer an inducement to the passengers to take a later flight. [...] Of the 613 million people who flew on major US carriers in 2015, 46,000 were involuntarily denied boarding, according to data from the Department of Transportation -- less than 0.008%.
Airlines shouldn't be allowed to ask for name/ID. You read that right. I should be able to anonymously buy plane tickets. It's none of their business where I go and if I actually take the plane myself or give the ticket to someone else. There are security concerns, but the government/airport security handle this part. I have no problem with the government knowing that I am flying (so they can check I am not a terrorist/whatever) but I should never have to present an ID to an airline employee.
So since the ticket should be mine, there would be no overbooking since I could sell the ticket on eBay myself if I can't board the flight.