Last year, a typical discounted first class domestic fare would book segments in something like Z or A and if an economy only segment were present you’d get Y.

This year, they seem to be booking into the economy parent class, for example, an A fare I am looking at is based on a U fare and indeed books into U on the CRJ-200, etc segments.

This is a bit of a devaluation of the upfare structure, especially since fares no longer seem to be cheaper when one of the segments is usually economy only (as is happening to some of the CLE-IAD flights). At least you used to get an extra 250 PQMs or 0.5 PQSs for your extra money.