Very true. They might just "happen" to release seats in that time window, just when it would cost fees to book. Anyone know if the fees would apply if you were waitlisted and it cleared? There's a real potential for abuse here.

And the fees are a blatant money grab because e-ticketing eliminates the old excuse about having to drop everything to print a ticket and FedEx it out. What's next...charging "lost ticket fees" if you don't present an e-ticket receipt at the ticket counter?

As for T & Q, it's unchanged for now, but don't forget that Delta has insULT, and they may choose to "simplify" the structure under a DL/CO/NW alliance by doing it Delta's way.

Overall, I think the whole CO upper-management mentality of, "Times are tough, so we need to invent new fees and charge more" is fundamentally wrongheaded. It'll mainly help Southwest, Jet Blue, AirTran, etc.