Why do airlines seem to overbook flights so often, especially when they end up having to pay extra in rewards to passengers who give up their seats?

Question

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

Answer 1

They do overbook every flight because it happens very often that people don’t take their booked flights. So often that otherwise they would fly with empty seats. So paying for hotels or for people simply waiting still is cheaper for the airlines.