Yes, and as a frequent consumer of flights, I am more concerned about the costs overall increasing on me than my luggage being lost or my flight being bumped.
Yeah, but as a frequent flyer, you will never be the one who gets bumped and has your vacation ruined, costing you potentially thousands.
Also, it won't actually mean that the airlines don't oversell tickets, thus won't increase the average ticket price by more than a couple bucks. They can and will still offer people $300 vouchers to "volunteer" their seat and most times that will work. The only time they will need to pay the $2400 is when the amount of delay till the next flight is so extreme and thus no one on the plane wants to take the voucher. And that is just the situation where the person who is unwillingly bumped deserves that level of compensation. And no, people won't "hold out" for the $2400 b/c they are not likely to be the person selected to get bumped, so refusing the voucher to get more $ won't work.
And a lost piece of luggage on one's vacation is easily worth $2000 for the level of stress, hassle, $, and time it costs.
These are inherent costs that the airlines should have always paid out and put into their costs of doing business. The fact that they have increased profits by unethically screwing people over and passed a small portion of their savings onto you, isn't a good argument for them to keep doing it. Want to lower flight costs without screwing other people over? Then support stronger regulations that prohibit the airline mergers that have caused skyrocketing prices and ever decreasing quality of service, comfort, etc..
