They should not arbitrarily increase costs. If they want to take the risk of over-selling their seats to make more money, then they should be willing to buy bac

They should not arbitrarily increase costs. If they want to take the risk of over-selling their seats to make more money, then they should be willing to buy back the extra seat at open auction if too many people show up. That's perfectly reasonable. If you are offering the buy-out to a plane of 130 people, all it takes is one person saying yes to get you a seat. In this case, they needed four seats, so they'd have to go a little higher. I also think you are greatly underestimating the power of the dollar. As others have said, a few hundred dollars more, and I feel confident that multiple volunteers would have come forward. Also, they might try offering actual cash instead of vouchers. To be clear, the situation would also have been entirely different if they had dealt with it BEFORE they fully boarded the plane. It would have been much easier to find volunteers and deny boarding if needed when everyone was still in the terminal.