[PHXFlyer]

Originally Posted by jimworcs

What are you talking about? That is a ridiculous analogy. I am saying when a flight is overbooked, the airline has to select some passengers who will be denied boarding. It should first ask for volunteers, but when none are forthcoming, it should use some compassion and common sense in deciding who should be denied boarding. In my category of those who should not be selected FOR EXAMPLE are:

1. People with a disability
2. Elderly frail people
3. Unaccompanied parents with a small child under 6 in tow
4. Unaccompanied minors under 18

It is just basic human decency and common sense.....

And discriminatory. Basing the criteria on inverse check-in time does not take any factors which could be deemed discriminatory into account. Suppose a business person who needs to be at a critical meeting checks in 50 minutes early while a young mother traveling with a lap child barely makes the 45 minute cutoff time. Now the flight is over-sold and they tell the businessman that even though he checked in first and got the last seat assignment because he's flying solo and there's a mother with a lap child that he'll be the one left behind. Pardon the pun but that's just not gonna fly!

Also if the airlines did as you suggest where do they draw the line? Just how elderly or frail would someone need to be so that they aren't bumped? Which disabilities determine that someone must fly when there's an over-sold situation? Using the inverse check-in time makes the decision cut and dried.