Delta avoids the overbooking issue by having a much SMARTER policy

[exboyfil]

26. You are right - that is how a seat buy back program should work

There is an economic advantage of overbooking. Having filled planes is an economic benefit to the country. The problem is that, as originally conceived, the seat buyback program did not envision a cap on the compensation. UAL used a ridiculously low policy cap ($800 in travel vouchers which probably has an economic value of $200?) and then used the security apparatus to enforce that policy cap. In a pool of 100 potential offer takers the free market should rule. This transaction occurs all the time at the gate counter. I would urge anyone experiencing a non-voluntary bump to do two things. The first is to loudly question why they were selected ensuring that the encounter is videoed, and the second to take the cash and not the travel voucher.

$1350 is still not enough to enforce non-predatory practices by the airlines, but it is a start. There is nothing "random" about the selection of passengers. They are picked based upon an algorithm that quantities their economic benefit to the airline. That decision also has civil rights implications that have not been explored yet. Throw this into the fact that the passenger can already be viewed as "boarded" (sitting in his assigned seat) which dramatically restricts the rights of the airline to then remove that passenger from the plane. Obviously this point could be argued in a court of law of course (what qualifies as boarded). By asserting his rights the customer forced the situation (reminds you of a civil rights icon who stood for her rights when she had less cover from the law).