the dealer would be culpable of fraud. Yet airlines do pretty much the same thing thousands of times a day when they overbook their flights.
Their excuse of protecting themselves against loss from no-shows and last-minute rescheduling is hardly credible in view of the exorbitant fees they impose on passengers who don’t turn up for a booked flight.
If airlines are allowed to penalize customers for missing or rescheduling a flight, regulators should bar the airlines from overbooking.