In Reply to: So Garuda are untrustworthy!! posted by pobi on Saturday, 3. November 2012 at 18:32 Bali Time:
sometimes by as much as 50%. This means that if they have a 150 seat airplane, they might sell 250 tickets for that flight - a mix of all different fares. Some people don't turn up, some business travellers may book 3 different flights until they decide which one to take,
"Over booking enables the airline to accept lower fares for the seats they are overbooking.
If an airline says to itself 'I need to earn $15,000 from this flight' and if it has 100 seats on the plane, it needs to get an average of $150 a ticket if it sells 100 tickets. But if it says 'I'm going to oversell the flight' and if it sells 150 tickets - ie, by overselling the flight by 50% - it only needs to get an average of $100 per ticket.
So overselling, if it is done correctly , can help get lower airfares.
I've taken the voluntary bump for a few flights with great compensation.