What term describes selling more tickets than there are seats on a flight?

• A. Open-jaw trip
• B. Open-skies policy
• C. Overbook
• D. Paper ticket

Answer: (C)

Overbooking is the practice of selling more seats on a flight than are actually available, based on the expectation that a number of passengers won’t show up. Airlines do this to maximize aircraft occupancy and revenue, since no-shows are a normal part of travel. When all ticketed passengers do show up, the airline may ask for volunteers to take later flights and offer compensation, or rebook affected travelers. The other terms don’t describe this situation: an open-jaw trip is a type of itinerary with combined arrival and departure cities, an Open-skies policy refers to international air-rights agreements, and a paper ticket is simply a former form of boarding document.