Airlines long ago figured out that they can maximize revenue by overbooking flights. Yeah, they have to pay people when they bump them, but that expense is nothing compared to the cost of just selling the number of tickets that corresponds to the actual number of seats on the airplane. After all, they make money from no-shows. Who these people are that buy airline tickets and then blow off their plans at the last minute? That's what I don't understand. -via Digg
Feel free to bump me off of an overbooked flight. Use force, if necessary (I'm looking at you, United). I will happily settle out of court for a million bucks in exchange for a black eye and bloody nose.
If I had to guess, another 3 billion people are sick at any given time (out of 7.5 billion total).
That would partially explain people not getting on a plane at the last minute.