It just seems like it happens so often, and airlines will sometimes offer you three times the price of the ticket just to stay a few extra hours. Seems like it’d be easy to just…stop selling tickets once the plane is full??
In: Economics
They make more money that way.
A certain number of people are going to miss every flight…their plans changed, they caught an earlier flight, or they just didn’t get to the airport in time. Airlines anticipate this and sell a few extra tickets rather than fly with empty seats. Most the time, they do a good job and no one has to get bumped. Occasionally it doesn’t work out, and they have to bribe someone off of the plane. If they stopped selling tickets when the plane is full, they’d have to charge everyone more.
It might seem like they are spending a lot of money, but it is not every flight and that last-minute traveler might have paid $800 for the ticket you bought for $200 three months before.
Latest Answers