Yeah, gonna have to go ahead and call bullshit on your entire fucking textbook. PREMISE: Nope, sorry. If you're hitting me for multiple hundreds of dollars of nonrefundable travel, we have an agreement that in exchange for the money I paid you, you take me where you promised I will go. That you think this isn't our agreement simply because you've got a bunch of boilerplate that says otherwise illustrates that you are operating in bad faith. That all your competitors do the same thing is an illustration of collusion. And if you want to see how that sits with your passengers, just wait for the lawsuits. PREMISE: Key word: "Historically." This has not been true for at least two decades. Sure - all the airlines offer "refundable" airfares. They generally cost between two and four times as much as refundable airfares. And, as the low-cost non-refundable carriers have eaten into the profit margins of traditional carriers (like United) the non-refundable fares have gotten more and more expensive. Now? Now you lose 100% of the value of the ticket if you don't check in both ways (been there, done that) because while the airlines assume you recognize that you're paying exorbitant sums for the illusion of guaranteed travel, should you buy two round-trip tickets that are cheaper than one round-trip tickets on the dates you want, the airlines will cancel all four legs because fuck you, that's why. PREMISE: Holy shit! It's almost like non-refundable fares are so much cheaper than refundable ones that it pencils out to buy three of them instead of one refundable one, especially with how fucked up the pricing is! I know - let's blame the customer. Premise: So... the fact that airlines can't profit without treating customers like cargo is the customer's fault how? PREMISE: Yeah, they fuck you there, too. $200 airline voucher? You know what that actually is? It's $200 that must be redeemed in person at a ticket counter within the next 365 days for a full-fare ticket. Which means that "discounted" fare of $200 that you want to buy? Yeah, if you use that voucher you owe the airline $600 because it's actually an $800 ticket. I suspect your shitheel Peter Belobaba is one of the reasons things have gotten as shitty as they have and make no mistake: everything you quote is an airline industry asshole justifying why the airline industry is entitled to be assholes to everyone. And fuck them all. "Didn't he pay for his seat? How can United sell seats they don't have??!" That just isn't how airlines work these days.
Why is overbooking even necessary? The simple answer is that airlines have historically allowed their passengers to make reservations (which removes seats from the airline’s available inventory) and then to “no-show” with little or no penalty.
In the USA, domestic airline no-show rates average 10–15% of final pre-departure bookings, and can exceed 20% during peak holiday periods.
Given that most airlines struggle to attain a consistent operating profit, the loss of 10–15% of potential revenues on fully booked flights (which would occur without overbooking) represents a major negative impact on profits.
DB costs can also be compensated for with upgrades, free tickets and lounge access, all far lower than the profitability of a few seats.