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A full flight is not overloaded. All aircraft have very generous safety margins built-in.

That must be why I was pulled off a regional flight. Turboprop in that case. I'd been scheduled for a later flight, but could make that one. They cleared me on, and then decided that they were *overweight*. That plane had several empty seats, and it only has about 30. Another time, this time on a regional jet, they asked for volunteers to take a later flight, because they thought they were *overweight*.

It all depends on how much they have in the baggage compartment, how much fuel, and what the temperature is. (DFW can get kind of warm in the summer, although not compared to Phoenix Skyharbor)

This is what I was told when I was bumped off a plane in Portland, Oregon.

Americans are getting heavier! The planes are the same size as before. So the FAA recalculated the weight restrictions based on the average weight of one person and their luggage. They have to fly these little ones, so that the margin of safety is still there, with a few empty seats.

So I got bumped, but my luggage went on ahead of me. The next plane had a pilot from another airline waiting for a standby seat. They would not put him on, as he did not pay for a ticket, unless there was extra room. Since my luggage had gone ahead, I was calculated as a person with no luggage, and they let him on. I sat next to him.

So there could be a "full" flight and still be a few empty seats there that they could not fill because of "overweight".