Your Airline Seat Was Sold Twice

Airlines routinely sell more tickets than there are seats, and it's not a mistake. This is a plain-language look at how yield management, fare classes, and overbooking actually work, why a single seat can be sold at a dozen different prices, and the federal rule that decides what you're owed when the math goes wrong. 0:00 The Seat You Both Bought 0:48 It Was Never a Seat 1:52 The No-Show Problem 3:06 Betting on Who Won't Come 4:24 When the Bet Goes Wrong 5:26 The Deregulation Spark 6:45 Crandall's Machine 8:08 One Cabin, Many Prices 9:36 The Fences Around a Fare 10:47 Rationing the Cheap Seats 12:05 The Volunteer Auction 13:21 What You're Actually Owed 14:38 Why the System Survives 16:02 The Curious Part #airlineoverbooking #yieldmanagement #revenuemanagement #airlinepricing Sources: Code of Federal Regulations — Title 14, Part 250 (federal regulation) — https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14... U.S. Government Publishing Office — U.S. Statutes at Large (federal statute) — https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/S... Cornell Legal Information Institute — https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/... NPR — Passenger Forcibly Removed From United Flight Prompting Outcry — https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-w... How Delta Masters The Game Of Overbooking Flights — https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/...