Airlines routinely overbook flights. It's because people often cancel or change at the last minute, and if the airlines didn't overbook, they would be left with many empty seats, and the flights wouldn't be so economical, and the airlines would have to raise their prices.
There's a lot of complex statistics involved, sometimes they get the numbers right, sometimes they get it wrong; that's what happens when you take mathematical formulae and try to apply them to the random and ultimately unpredictable behaviour of humans.
Would you rather that they *never* overbooked flights? It would mean that your tickets would be so much more expensive as they would have to factor in the flexible ticket holders who could change at the last minute and decide to take a later flight. If you want absolutely guaranteed no overbooking, you'd have to pay a substantial premium on your ticket. Are you prepared to pay that premium?
I think most passengers would rather the tickets were as economically priced as possible, even if occasionally that might mean some inconvenience.
And why the extreme anger? Was your mother on her way to some once in a lifetime event, like someone's wedding, or to say goodbye to a loved one with a terminal illness? In the whole scheme of things, is it really so bad? Just think: What if someone who *did* get a seat on that flight was relieved because they were in that once in a lifetime situation? Maybe your mother losing a seat on that flight enabled someone else to do something important and/or life-changing.
Remember the chaos theory, if a butterfly flaps it's wings in South America, that has an effect on something else. Your mother missing that flight was meant to be, for some random unfathomable reason.
Airlines routinely overbook flights. It's because people often cancel or change at the last minute, and if the airlines didn't overbook, they would be left with many empty seats, and the flights wouldn't be so economical, and the airlines would have to raise their prices.
There's a lot of complex statistics involved, sometimes they get the numbers right, sometimes they get it wrong; that's what happens when you take mathematical formulae and try to apply them to the random and ultimately unpredictable behaviour of humans.
Would you rather that they *never* overbooked flights? It would mean that your tickets would be so much more expensive as they would have to factor in the flexible ticket holders who could change at the last minute and decide to take a later flight. If you want absolutely guaranteed no overbooking, you'd have to pay a substantial premium on your ticket. Are you prepared to pay that premium?
I think most passengers would rather the tickets were as economically priced as possible, even if occasionally that might mean some inconvenience.
And why the extreme anger? Was your mother on her way to some once in a lifetime event, like someone's wedding, or to say goodbye to a loved one with a terminal illness? In the whole scheme of things, is it really so bad? Just think: What if someone who *did* get a seat on that flight was relieved because they were in that once in a lifetime situation? Maybe your mother losing a seat on that flight enabled someone else to do something important and/or life-changing.
Remember the chaos theory, if a butterfly flaps it's wings in South America, that has an effect on something else. Your mother missing that flight was meant to be, for some random unfathomable reason.