"Harry Krause" wrote in message

United acted as it did, "knowing we would oversell the flight."

All flights are oversold, because the industry has learned over the last
forty years or so that American travellers are predictably unreliable about
showing up. The various airlines are usually quite accurate in their
predictions, but anomalies arise from time to time.


If United gave a crap, it would have made another plane available, or it
wouldn't have overbooked so drastically.

Contrary to popularly held myth, there usually isn't another plane
available. You simply don't keep a 20M asset lying around a non-hub in case
something comes up. If the occasion arises at a hub, you may be able to
jockey things and cover an additional flight, but it is not likely. If you
latch onto a craft that is scheduled to leave 2 hours from now, the downline
ramifications of such a decision could disrupt your network for days and
possible cost millions.

JG