I like the Economist's solution to the overbooking flights problem:
"pay fair compensation to any volunteers willing to rebook onto a later service. And what counts as fair? Let the market decide. If flyers are not tempted by a carrier’s 1st offer, keep raising it until someone bites. If that price is many times the cost of the original ticket, so be it."
http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2017/04/when-ticket-not-enough
@MaxKriegerVG I like letting the market decide so everyone is a winner. :grinning: :thumbsup:
@iain there is no such thing as a free market
@Xibanya A well-regulated market is OK.
@iain Airlines don't already do this? I've seen this happen. Although maybe it was a travel voucher instead of cash? And they even did it with a free booking on a later flight on the route.
@ikea_femme Yes This is about bumping up the price in an auction until the bumped passengers are happy. Greedy overbooking airlines pay the price.
@iain I've seen Delta do that very succesfuly. Was even getting tempted myself by the money offered in the end.
@cfbolz When I was a penniless student I would have been delighted with an extra £50.
@iain hah, at the end it was close to $1000
@iain they already do that though; by US law, compensation for *involuntary* cancellation starts at 400% of the ticket's value, up to a cap of $1350. they make money off volunteers, but even then, it's likely at a loss, especially when you factor in the costs of moving passengers around and lost customer loyalty.
The issue with overbooking is the logic of maximizing profits; under that guidance, there's no reason for airlines (or other industries) to stop the practice.
@iain American capitalists love "let the market decide" until that solution no longer benefits them. Ah, if only.