system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How can airline carriers get away with overbooking flights?

Financially, isn't it a drain on resources to compensate affected passengers? Legally, are they somehow covered?
gpt
They use statistics concerning past no-show rates to determine how to extract maximum profit from the seats on each plane.  They have a formula where they calculate the chance of a few passengers not showing up, versus the cost of compensating a few angry people if the overbooking results in not enough seats, and they see it as purely a profit-making exercise balanced by a public-relations exercise.  They know they can ALWAYS get a few people to agree to take a later flight if they offer the proper inducement.  Have you ever sat in the take-off lounge and you hear the announcements at first offering a $100 voucher if someone will volunteer to take a later flight, and then if no one takes it, a free round trip, and so forth, until eventually someone caves and accepts the bribe to not sit on their planned flight?