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>how economically important it is to overbook. I still don't believe this claim. A 727 seats 129, a 787 seats 290, and a 747 seats 366. That means it only make

>how economically important it is to overbook. I still don't believe this claim. A 727 seats 129, a 787 seats 290, and a 747 seats 366. That means it only makes flights slightly less expensive. I only travel a few times a year and I'd rather pay 2% more than get bumped off my flight. Why do we allow airlines to overbook but not movie theaters or other industries? This seems like an artificial advantage we've given them and it doesn't seem beneficial at all to the average consumer.

ldiracdelta 10y ago
If theaters had an escalating buyback price for their tickets, I could be persuaded to, say, not see the next Star Wars movie for $100 and then see it later. I have a price. Most people do.
lucasmullens 10y ago
Paying 2% more and getting bumped off your flight is a false dichotomy. United's approach of offering $10k avoids both. I don't see a reason to waste seats if it can be avoided without hurting consumers. Wasting seats is inefficient economically and bad for the environment.
linkregister 10y ago
I've seen movie theaters overbook too. I think you might be surprised about how many industries overbook. I think it's the worst when hotels overbook. Typically the replacement hotel is less nice and has a bad location.
megablast 10y ago
There were years where airlines were only making around $200 per flight. Not per person, PER FLIGHT.
kristianp 10y ago
I think you're missing the fact that a percentage of people don't turn up for their flights, so on most overbooked flights, the airline doesn't have to buy back tickets at all.
hueving 10y ago
Almost nobody gets bumped involuntarily on competent airlines. They just increase the bid until someone has a hell of a great day by clearing first class round trip tickets across the globe for volunteering to spend the night.
dionidium 10y ago
This isn't your point, but, in case anyone's wondering, Southwest doesn't fly any of those planes. An interesting thing about their operation is that they exclusively fly Boeing 737 aircraft. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines#Fleet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines#Fleet

ldiracdelta 10y ago

If theaters had an escalating buyback price for their tickets, I could be persuaded to, say, not see the next Star Wars movie for $100 and then see it later. I have a price. Most people do.

lucasmullens 10y ago

Paying 2% more and getting bumped off your flight is a false dichotomy. United's approach of offering $10k avoids both. I don't see a reason to waste seats if it can be avoided without hurting consumers. Wasting seats is inefficient economically and bad for the environment.

linkregister 10y ago

I've seen movie theaters overbook too. I think you might be surprised about how many industries overbook. I think it's the worst when hotels overbook. Typically the replacement hotel is less nice and has a bad location.

megablast 10y ago

There were years where airlines were only making around $200 per flight. Not per person, PER FLIGHT.

kristianp 10y ago

I think you're missing the fact that a percentage of people don't turn up for their flights, so on most overbooked flights, the airline doesn't have to buy back tickets at all.

hueving 10y ago

Almost nobody gets bumped involuntarily on competent airlines. They just increase the bid until someone has a hell of a great day by clearing first class round trip tickets across the globe for volunteering to spend the night.

dionidium 10y ago

This isn't your point, but, in case anyone's wondering, Southwest doesn't fly any of those planes. An interesting thing about their operation is that they exclusively fly Boeing 737 aircraft. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines#Fleet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines#Fleet