Complaints against Air Canada continue to rack up over their policy of overbooking flights. In this recent CBC story (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/couple-incensed-as-air-canada-overbooking-continues-1.1894951), this couple had family waiting for them at home assuming they would arrive on time, and so they experienced significant personal distress.

It seems the public is generally displeased with overbooking, and regard the practice as unfair. But is overbooking unethical?

Airlines are in the business of providing fixed-route scheduled travel. Though the fine print states that travel is not guaranteed, it seems reasonable to see planning to be unable to provide the promised transporation asdeceptive. But not all airlines overbook so often (for example, Westjet), so consumers can choose how much overbooking risk to take on. We should also note that, with compensation of $300 per passenger for the bump in the news story, some might even want to get bumped.

When MIT “overbooked” its MBA program (http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10000872396390444083304578018610327120942), they asked for volunteers to defer and offered ‘scholarships,’ increasing in value when not enough students responded. If Air Canada asked each passenger to name their own bump compensation, and bumped those who bid the lowest, then only those who would be happy to be bumped at their price would be forced to wait. Airlines could maximize passenger loads and bumped passengers could benefit by receiving a sum determined by supply-and-demand economics.