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I was sitting at JFK back in the day waiting for my flight back to London.

Over the speakers came an announcement: "if anyone is prepared to give up their seat on [my London flight] we'll fly them back tomorrow on Concorde and put them up in [a ritzy hotel] tonight".

I bolted for the service desk to take up the offer and got there in seconds but there were already several people ahead of me. Never got to fly Concorde.



I had a professor who said that in the early days of priceline he used to book fully refundable flights from London or Paris to NYC on the concorde then cancel them - just to pick them back up on priceline for a few hundred bucks at the last minute. Never knew if it was bullshit but certainly made a good story when I heard it in 2008. The context of the global financial crisis made the .com boom/bust look quaint.


That is (a reason) why airlines overbook




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