Economy Fares changes will increase COVID risk IMO
 

Since AA has decided to end changes on economy fares, I wonder how many people with Flu or COVID symptoms will just decide to travel anyways? I mean if you are on a budget in this crappy economy and you need to get somewhere there is now incentive to fly with COVID because that person maybe feels losing the fare is too costly. I fly a minimum 100x year and have logged 200 flights in one year but now switching back to SWA. SWA is a little cheaper anyways but was willing to pay a little extra for economy fares on AA. I don't want to be paying insurance or higher fares just so I can have the ability to change flights. At that cost SWA much cheaper. I guess AA will miss out on possibly 100 fares by me this upcoming year. Even if I decided to fly AA, the risk of other passengers now with COVID is definitely increased IMO. So, guess I will get back to getting herded onto SWA.

This is MAJOR news if true, but I have heard nothing. Where are you seeing that change fees are coming back?

My thoughts exactly. I see nothing online about this

Yes, I would just stop booking travel on AA if this was true, unless all the other airlines immediately matched. But DL indicated even before the pandemic they wanted to get away from these fees, so it seems unlikely that they'd pull the trigger on bringing them back.

BASIC FARE ECONOMY RESTRICTIONS:
x No Changes allowed.

I have a ticket and asked to change and just found out. Change happened last month. So now you cannot even change with a fee. You FORFEIT the entire fare!!!!
Is AA assuming people on a budget that bought an economy ticket are just going to forfeit the fare if they get COVID symptoms? A few maybe but a bunch will just fly anyway.
In this current economy I don't see many people forfeiting their fare if they are sick. The people that can afford to lose the fare likely booked a different fare. The one's that
really cannot afford to forfeit the fare likely booked an economy fare and you will have them coughing next to you on a flight.

I am switching back to SWA. Too bad because I really like AA otherwise but this is a deal breaker.

I am a traveling physician and my schedule changes. I often book a lot of tickets and have to change some periodically. AA was really sneaky about it. They posted it so obscurely when you book the economy fare you might miss it like I did. I might be ok with a reasonable change fee but now they make you just forfeit the fare or fly the flight you scheduled. You can do same day standby but if filled I was told you forfeit the fare. So, definitely going back to the cattle plane SWA. I would fly AA over SWA all things being equal with change of flights. My economy fares more on AA than SWA but I was still willing to pay increased fares on AA but not now with the possible forfeiture of fare.

Flu/COVID already picking up. I assume AA will have greater numbers with this policy.

BE tickets were never open to changing anyway.

I was changing them the last 2 years. They just made this change in SEPT.

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Those restrictions only apply to AA Basic Economy fares, and that's been the related AA policy for a long time--not just since September--for travel on other AA fares for flights beginning in North or South America. That's a risk with buying the cheaper Basic Economy fare.

True but were allowing change up until SEPT

BE tickets have been un-changeable since long before September.

I'm not sure I understand? If you prefer AA over SWA and you are comfortable paying more for AA (which you allude to), then why not just continue with AA on NON-Basic econ fares?
Even pre-Covid, I would NEVER buy a basic economy fare, as the discounted price never made up for inflexibility.

Basic economy fares are not the same as Main Cabin fares. They're both coach fares. And no people aren't going to sit home if they get the sniffles. I sure the hell am not.

I think the OP's concern is that other passengers who purchase Basic Economy fares on AA will be more likely to fly when sick. And he does not want to be on the same airplane with them.