A simple way to ease the pain of airline overbooking

Flights must be allowed to give higher sums to involuntary bumped travelers

Something good might come of the horrible incident involving United Airlines, in which a passenger was forcibly evicted to make room for airline personnel. The Department of Transportation, working with the major airlines, should substantially increase the compensation given to passengers involuntarily bumped because of overbooking.

By itself, overbooking is not objectionable. Sometimes passengers miss flights because of late connections. Sometimes they just don’t show up. Most airlines occasionally overbook.

Usually that doesn’t hurt anyone. Overbooking has probably allowed you to get on flights on which carriers would not otherwise have been able to seat you. Even when people with reservations are