Originally Posted by
minnyfly
Under the scenario that BE is the same price as Y, the only way it's revenue neutral is if no one buys up to the new Y price.
That's just not true. It takes quite a few non-BE passengers to make up for the revenue lost by an empty seat (due to book-away). It's entirely possible for BE to be revenue negative. Unfortunately, I don't think that it will be -- or DL would have dropped it already -- but I'd welcome it if it were.
Originally Posted by
minnyfly
For how empty E+ cabins generally are, few people are buying up for extra legroom, and those that want BE are generally price sensitive and wouldn't be interested in E+ anyway. The loss of that ancillary revenue has to be minor, if any with the implementation of BE.
This makes no sense. In a non-BE world, the vast majority of passengers on the plane have purchased the lowest fare class that was available at the time of booking for their cabin of service, whether they're interested in E+ or not. People looking to upgrade internationally will have bought up to W, and some people will have selected a flexible / unrestricted ticket, either due to uncertain plans or corporate travel policies. But most everyone else just looks at the lowest available economy / first price and goes from there.