What about those that can't afford to pay. Are their plans less important because they can't afford the no-bump class?
That's not an argument.
Else we can ask what about those who can't afford an airplane ticket at all? Perhaps nobody should ever fly since we can't assume that these people don't have important plans either?
>Their plans less important because they can't afford the no-bump class?
No, but their purchase power is clearly less -- which is what determines what one buys (and if one can afford to fly in the first place), not the importance of their plans.
(The only place where the argument holds is in things like organ transplant waiting lists, which we don't want to turn into a market -- and we'd be less hypocritical if we extended it into general free/same-price healthcare for all).
The obvious answer is "chartered jet" has a 100% seat guarantee, but that's an order of magnitude more expensive.
Anyways, the bumping situation only would come up rarely, most oversold flights don't have to bump anyone and usually oversold flights have volunteers before they have to involuntary bump someone.
Airlines don't have an interest to bump passengers. At least in Europe this can be relatively costly as in up to 600EUR compensation per passenger. Add hotel rooms, multiple restaurant visits, taxis and communication costs to that. Add the image loss if this happens too frequently.
Airlines employ extremely complex math and statistical models to avoid bumping passengers, while filling the plane to capacity and mostly it works out. If it doesn't they usually find volounteers, who are willing to be bumped, provided that they are fairly compensated and provided with a reasonable alternative.
Job interviews are readily rescheduled if you're bumped against your will.
Airlines already have bereavement flights that give the bereaved priority and extra flexibility.
We already have regulations that compensate people who are bumped against their will so it's not in the airlines best interest to do so, it's expensive.
BTW, my mom missed her dad's funeral due to the 1981 air traffic controller strike.