[linkregister]

I like your analysis.

In the U.S., plane tickets are a contract where all passengers agree to the standard overbooking process: passengers who don't have a seat are placed in a standby status. If they are bumped from the flight, they can get up to a certain amount of money and are placed on the next available flight.

It's shitty because no airline offers an alternative to this contract, so all passengers have to accept it... until Southwest decided to stop overbooking.