Originally Posted by
Kevin AA
Your example of a stock option doesn't make any sense. You're not paying the fee for the option to do something later. You are buying the lowest fare instead of paying for the flexibility.
Kevin did you fail law school AND economics? When cancelling a WGA fare you forfeit the ability to do anything with the refund other than spend it at Southwest and even then risk losing it forever. Removing the option to spend the refund anywhere and locking it into Southwest for a year is the "fee". If you want to avoid this "fee", you can spend more on a refundable fare. Economic incentives abound!