Airline Overbooking

There is a large chance B offers to sell the ticket for less than $100 -- that is, he decides not to fly, and either forfeits his ticket or accepts a voucher for less than what he paid. That's the whole reason they overbook in the first place.

Because two wrongs doesn't make a right and because the terms you agree to allows the airline to overbook giving you a lower fare in return (at least some business class fares guarantee you a seat).

Maybe not. But IANAL. However, why can't they bid for passengers to fly later. After boarding, they'd probably just need to pay more.

Interestingly airlines already do this. When airlines ask for volunteers to take the next flight, it could due to a range of factors but last-minute business travel is one. They will absolutely sell a last-minute ticket for $2,000 to a business traveler when the flight is already overbooked, then offer someone $1,000 to take another flight. Usually everyone is satisfied and the airline profits.

Rather, allow people to buy "don't-kick-me" tickets for a bigger price and once the plane has been filled with don't-kick-mes, notify all other ticket holders that they're being bumped to a later flight. If any don't-kick-mes don't show, the waste is covered by the increased price.

They also save by not refunding an oversubscribed seat too. Win win win for airlines.

The same way airlines oversell seats, they don't expect everyone to turn up. But for these claims, they expect the majority not to.

Remove that regulation and united offers you $0.01 and a pat on the head for not letting you board because they overbooked.

Almost every flight during peak travel periods is oversold, which means that the airlines are selling more seats than they have (which sounds like fraud, since if you end up in an oversold flight and no one cancels, they ask the PASSENGERS to make the sacrifice, even though the reality is that the airline sold something that they no longer had)... so there was almost certainly someone else who got his seat.

It's really absurd to get punished for paying for a flight and then not taking it. Sorry I either allowed you to double sell a seat or fly slightly more economically without my added mass. You could fix this by not charging me more for buying fewer seats.