Non-elites are being put in premium as well. I don't think we have strong evidence that being an elite gives you a better chance.

What specific term of the program was violated by AS introducing a new fare basis which has different features? You can look all you want and you will not find it. In fact, you will run straight into the disclosure that the program may be changed at any time (although the program has not been changed at all).

However, for most, they are a bad deal. Whether you ordinarily pay a change fee or not, these tickets are wholly inflexible. If you need to make a change or cancel, the ticket loses all value and you simply buy a new one.

This ship sailed 6 years ago when DL introduced the fares and started expanding them because they are highly profitable and many customers like them (because they are cheaper and they want to save money).

AS arguably offers the least worst of the BE fares, though for most flights they're still not a particularly good choice. On AS you get full EQM earning and keep your boarding spot. The occasional PC class seating isn't special - people on BE fares on UA also sometimes get E+ seats. If you don't have status and you're flying a cheap ticket on an RJ, they're not necessarily a bad buy - you're getting a window or aisle anyway, the change fee is probably more than the ticket price for a non-BE ticket, and you already aren't getting an upgrade. If you're MVPG or higher they don't make sense - with the free changes, the extra $30 for a ticket in main makes it very comparable to a full-fare changeable Y (minus the instant upgrades) of most other carriers.

In any case, none of the airlines really want you to buy them. It's there so they show up in the first page along with NK on the various search engines. At this point the airlines have so confused the low end fare restrictions that the search engines are useless (probably intent on the part of the airlines) and unless you're planning absolutely no changes and a $1 difference in price matters to you, you have to go to all the airline sites anyway to figure out the actual price for your combination of flights and baggage.

Matching the ULCCs is the justification the carriers all give for adding BE, but that rarely, if ever, seems to actually be the case. AS's X fares are the same as what the pre-X R fares were, so they were already showing up alongside NK; this just lets them extract more money from anyone who wants upgrades or flexibility.

That all having been said: lol @ OP

And they removed basic economy for routes where they have significant competition fron Southwest.

With genuine respect sir, to me Alaska Airlines having such sweeping language in the terms and conditions which says essentially "we can change the program anytime" doesn't make it right for Alaska Airlines to create the expectation of future benefits and then without enough notice diminish those benefits. In the extreme, would it be ethical if after a customer traveled under the expectation of earning status and using those benefits next year to get surprised as AS suddenly says "the entire program is cancelled forthwith, not sorry because we said we can do what we want. I don't think so.

Wasn't there a court case that backed up airlines ability so do whatever it wants with its program with no notice?

I don't know which case you are referring to, but I seriously doubt that any decision could be interpreted that broadly.

Not quite. But, close enough.

More importantly, this one isn't even close. It is a contract which OP chose to enter with AS and now argues AS should not enforce.

That is going nowhere with anyone. Most of all because a similar provision is in the terms of every FFP I can think of. Thus, even dumping AS doesn't get you anything.

You're probably thinking of one of two pieces of litigation against UA. The first was one by million mile flyers that had their lifetime benefits reduced and tier retitled and a new 75K tier inserted between their 50K tier and 1K. The other one was litigation by the Silver Wings flyers, a program offering discounts to senior flyers that paid a membership fee, that also promised benefits that seemed to have disappeared. I recall one of the judges in the million miler case questioning a UA exec who pretty much did respond that they could do whatever they wanted with their program, even with past promises.

Lifetime Silverwings members file class action against UA

Million Miler Sues United [Judgment for UA Jan 2014] Judgment Affirmed Dec 2014

RE: the theory that saver fares require Y space to be available, here is an example where only X is for sale.

When selecting "MVP® Gold guest" (thus filtering out saver) this flight option disappears.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...4b4740c65b.png

Main is definitely available. Why the AS search engine hides it is beyond me.

Edit: AS doesn't hide it... no clue why it looks that way for you.

Cheap buy-up too.

Interesting it shows up differently for each of us. I tried choosing the X fare, then was offered an upgrade to main which worked... but for $100 more!

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...3390c074a8.png

It's showing both as T for me, which explains the price difference. I don't know why they aren't selling you T though

ETA: What if you click through from here: https://flights.app.goo.gl/gLr5y

It shows me a $20 buy-up

ETA again: but when I clicked through, it said that a "real-time price change" caused my itinerary to be repriced, and it showed me G. I guess they zeroed out T? And it took a while to fully propagate?