POV - Your flight is overbooked

Hi, I'd like to check in for my flight, please. Oh, I'm really sorry, the flight's full. What do you mean it's full? I've got a valid ticket. Why can't I get on? I know you've got a valid ticket, pre book seats and therefore the flight's not guaranteed. This information is very misleading. Come with me and I'll tell you the truth. While it's true that airlines do overbook flights, pre-booking your seats beforehand does not guarantee you a place on the plane. This has happened to me fairly recently, so let me tell you what happens. On a flight to Jamaica to London, I had checked in online, went to the airport, dropped my bags off and got to the gate. At this point was when I got told the flight was overbooked at the gate. They were asking for volunteers to not get on board in order for passengers and the flight to go ahead as normal. While they are asking people to volunteer to not get on the flight, they were also offering them a great compensation package. Now, you should be offered up to £520 if your flight is cancelled due to denied boarding within 14 days of travel. Some airlines will offer you more if you volunteer not to get on the flight. If they have enough volunteers, then the flight will go ahead as normal. If they don't, unfortunately, they will then start selecting passengers to not get on. But this doesn't happen very often. So these skits that are going around, these funny sketches that people are doing saying that they're not getting on, haven't pre-booked seats, shouldn't scare you because it hardly ever happens. And if you're flying with airlines such as Ryanair or Jet 2, then you don't at all because they never overbook flights. In summary, yes, some airlines overbook flights and therefore you may not get on board. There is no way to guarantee your seat on the plane if they do overbook. But overbooking is because they overbook, in fact they rely on passengers not showing up for which happens more often than not.