zzpitt

Definitely cuts into the savings, but not a total negation. Had to do a "last minute" (10 days out) ORD-LAS-PHL trip this past weekend on my own dime, ended up buying B fare ORD-LAS for $62 (vs $195 main cabin) and B fare LAS-PHL for $195 (vs $493 main cabin). Definitely didn't want to get stuck in a middle on either leg, so I paid $12 to purchase a standard aisle seat on the ORD-LAS leg (and then watched the flight attendant allow a handful of people self upgrade into the exit rows right after the door closed) and $43 to purchase 23A (infinite leg room A321) on the LAS-PHL leg. All-in, it was still a $300+ savings, and the only noticeable difference for me was not being able to upgrade. Definitely won't make a habit of it, but still not as bad as I was fearing, especially with group 2 boarding and still keeping my EXP checked bag allowance.

IADCAflyer

BE isn't a bad deal as an elite with full baggage allowance and with early preboarding. The three downside are 1) you MAY NOT MAY NOT MAY NOT make voluntary changes to the ticket, 2) you get 50% EQMs, and 3) you are in a seat lotto which could mean a rather poor seat. I know the though of having a boarding pass with a seat assignment with the row being a double digit number is appalling to some, but you will survive.

tkelsay

It's a bad deal for the customer all around because BE is the same price as what main cabin used to be, so they just stripped benefits from customers while charging the same amount; or, in other words, they are making people pay for benefits that they used to offer for free. There is no benefit of BE to the customer.

kaydee7

I always buy BE now if I can on my flight home. It's less than 500 miles anyways so the BE EQM hit isn't much. With a guarantee that I won't get a middle seat, I'm willing to give up on my standard plane nap (in an aisle). However because of odds, I'm usually still in a window.

ijgordon

Some of us prefer not to live in the past. It's particularly depressing when thinking about the airline industry (although can't say I miss 50" pitch cradle seats in business class...)