I just checked and see I actually did buy my son a business ticket on May 8 last year for 12/1 (i.e. the Sunday flight). Of course I cancelled it once the WGA opened and then booked him on points.
I don't have the records for 2013 but I am nearly certain I was able to book a WGA fare a couple of days after the schedule opened. It was not a great flight as the non-stops were not yet open but they opened soon enough.
I still don't understand why they would only offer refundable tickets. Why not have some at 80% the cost of Anytime or something like that which are non-refundable?
Obviously this is a real pain for me booking on points as the value for Anytime/Business on points is so bad. Of course in the end it will work out fine as I have 100% confidence there will be plenty of WGF availability on that date so they can sell non-refundable tickets. On the other hand maybe the point value will be a nasty surprise given the new dynamic pricing.