Until the airlines started charging major change fees and cancellation fees, it was very common for business travelers to book on multiple flights (in case a meeting ended early or late) and the airlines started overbooking by up to 10% of the available seats to make sure the flights were as full as possible and that was LONG before Clinton. The first time I was "bumped" from a flight, was under the REAGAN ADMINISTRATION (more than 10 of us in line for check-in were "overbooked" - and I'm not blaming Reagan). DO feel free to blame the airlines (and I'll grant that folks for a variety of reasons do have to cancel: death, illness, connecting flight being held up, etc - but I seriously doubt that 10% do).