--- title: This is Why Airlines Will Always Overbook Flights description: Although it’s one of the most infuriating problems to run into while trying to travel, there’s a reason airlines continue the practice. canonical: https://time.com/4732781/why-airlines-overbook-flights/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-10T13:38:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:57:51.186Z og:title: This Is Why Airlines Overbook Flights og:description: An estimated 50,000 people are bumped from flights every year og:url: https://time.com/4732781/why-airlines-overbook-flights/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt46637f77eb652692/6988c2130a4a22113f9cd9de/gettyimages-181031656-22.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 7905 og:image:height: 4447 og:image:alt: Airbus A380 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Is Why Airlines Overbook Flights twitter:description: An estimated 50,000 people are bumped from flights every year twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt46637f77eb652692/6988c2130a4a22113f9cd9de/gettyimages-181031656-22.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is Why Airlines Overbook Flights > Sponsored content. 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Getty Images by [Cailey Rizzo / Travel + Leisure](https://time.com/author/travel-leisure/) ## Cailey Rizzo / Travel + Leisure Apr 10, 2017 1:38 PM UTC An estimated 50,000 people are bumped from flights every year. Although it’s one of the most infuriating problems to run into while trying to travel, there’s a reason airlines continue the practice—despite how angry it can make bumped customers. And the whole thing is explained in a TED Talk video. Overbooking is basically a built-in insurance policy for a business. By selling more seats than the airline actually has, they can guarantee a full flight, even if people cancel or don’t show up. But the process of figuring out overbooking is much more complicated than something like selling an extra 10 seats in case 10 people cancel, [as _The Points Guy_ notes](http://thepointsguy.com/2016/12/overbooking-airlines-explained-ted-talks-video/). It’s a delicate balance that’s all about the airline’s bottom line. And it involves a whole lot of math. (For those in need of a refresher on probability, the TED talk should break it down just fine.) But over the years, the game of overbooking has become more and more complicated. Now airlines aren’t just examining the likelihood of passengers to show up for their flight, complex algorithms also factor in traffic, weather, connecting flights, and time of day. Airlines have become adept at figuring out how many tickets they should oversell without losing money on rebooking passengers on different flights, meaning passengers will probably continue to get bumped. A traveler’s best defense in a world of overbooking is to know their rights. Passengers bumped from a flight in the U.S. are entitled to “denied boarding compensation,” either in the form of cash, check, free tickets, or vouchers for future flights. The amount of compensation varies depending on length of delay and amount spent on original ticket. _This_ [_article_](http://www.travelandleisure.com/airlines-airports/why-airlines-overbook-flights) _originally appeared on_ [_TravelandLeisure.com_](http://TravelandLeisure.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4732781/why-airlines-overbook-flights/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4732781/why-airlines-overbook-flights/"},"headline":"This Is Why Airlines Overbook Flights","datePublished":"2017-04-10T13:38:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:57:51.186Z","description":"An estimated 50,000 people are bumped from flights every year","url":"https://time.com/4732781/why-airlines-overbook-flights/","keywords":["Living","Travel","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt46637f77eb652692/6988c2130a4a22113f9cd9de/gettyimages-181031656-22.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cailey Rizzo / Travel + Leisure"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt46637f77eb652692/6988c2130a4a22113f9cd9de/gettyimages-181031656-22.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Airbus A380","caption":"Airbus A380","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4732781/why-airlines-overbook-flights/","name":"This Is Why Airlines Overbook Flights"}}]}] ```