United is reviewing its policies, including incentives for customers, and will announce any actions by April 30, a spokeswoman said. Other airlines did not immediately comment on whether they would raise their limits on passenger compensation.
When there aren’t enough seats, airlines usually ask for volunteers by offering travel vouchers, gift cards or cash.
Last year Delta got more passengers to give up their seats than any other U.S. airline, partly by paying more than most of the others.
As a result, it had the lowest rate among the largest U.S. airlines of bumping people off flights against their will -- something that is legal but alienates customers and requires the airline to pay compensation of up to $1,350 per person.
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Delta no doubt hopes that gate agents and their supervisors won’t need to make maximum offers, and the financial cost to the airline is likely to be limited. If Delta paid $9,950 to every person it bumped involuntarily last year, that would total $12 million. Delta earned nearly $4.4 billion.
"The United Incident" will be in every MBA Corp Strategy and Marketing course for decades to come.