Originally Posted by
channa
And that's what they're going to find out pretty quickly. By not offering Basic fares, they have been the best value in many cases over the past couple years. Now that they'll also be offering Basic fares, there are a lot more choices for a similar product at the same price point. Sure, some will buy up. But others will book elsewhere.
I think the intent is to offer saver fares with slightly better benefits than BE on AA/DL/UA and the ULCCs that everyone is competing with. Why would travelers book elsewhere unless there's a mismatch in fares (e.g. AS saver is the same as DL Y)?