Ah, the slippery slope. I mentioned this when WN first instituted some modest capacity controls on reward tickets. I noted that such controls were like crack to an airline's revenue management team -- they would definitely tighten them over time. Sure enough, the capacity controls now resemble a lot of other airlines.

This one's a bit different, though. For better or worse, management has spent a lot of money advertising that WN is "fee free." I don't think they're going to walk away from this. There might not even be a good business reason to do so (other airlines are definitely making money on fees, but perhaps by being the holdout, WN can make money by attracting alienated customers).

So, if it matters to you, I don't think we're going to see a basic bag fee on WN. The one I wonder more about, though, is the lack of a change fee. Has WN ever communicated that this is a "core business strategy"? I don't recall hearing it. It definitely costs them money to let people switch their flights fee-free, not to mention the inability to collect change fees and such. Heck, this weekend, UA reversed their long-standing policy of letting customers hold internet reservations for 24 hours. If UA won't give their customers 24 hours, how much does WN's incredibly lenient rez policy cost the airline?

Like the new modest unaccompanied minor fee, I could see WN imposing a $25 fee for rez changes. It would still be MUCH better than the competition, and would eliminate the "tweaking" most of us do, but still protect customers who really need to change their travel plans.

Of course, $25 WILL ultimately become $50, because that fee -- like award capacity controls -- is DEFINITELY a slippery slope. Let's hope we don't see it.