More E class on the way?
 

Just checked ATL-AUS/SAT to see if DL is matching the current WN sale. Sure enough they are ... with E fares. V is $50+ more r/t. Anyone finding E on other non-leisure routes?

Yeah!, more E middle seats.Why not just cut out the middle-man and fly Southwest or Spirit.

Why on earth would someone choose Delta's "E" fare on this? It's an objectively inferior product in virtually every way to Southwest's offering, but for the exact same price:

• 100% unchangeable (even with fee) vs. 100% changeable, for only a fare difference
• No included baggage vs. 2 included bags each way
• No advanced seat assignment, with only the dregs left after everyone else picks (vs SWA's no-advanced-seat-assignment for everyone, putting all on even footing)

Then, for flights after 2/1, no upgrades and no same-day changes either.

I guess you earn miles . . .

Perhaps it's the markets I fly to/from, but I've never even seen an E fare offered.

To be fair, I usually only book a week or so in advance.

The initial markets are listed at the URL below. DTW-ERI is a bit of an oddball (no LCC/ULCC's and probably not much O&D).

http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_...-economy-.html

I'm also seeing them on DTW-DFW and DTW-IAH (Spirit routes) even though they are not listed on the webpage.

E fares generally require a 3 week advance purchase and a Saturday night stay for a number of markets. Also only available on non-stop routings.

Interesting find by the OP.

Lots of city pairs don't have published fares all the way through the most-deeply discounted fare buckets. One might think they could keep one bucket above E (V or X) for time-limited promo/match fares.

you may have answered your own question

I agree completely. Also, with WN, you can pay the extra $10 or whatever it is now to get priority boarding, so you basically get your choice of seat and can often score an exit row.

Corporate discounts for the employer and miles for the sucker (I mean employee).

+1. DL shouldn't have even wasted the resources to come up with E fares.

For a frequent flyer, these are horrible to purchase. But for someone who is 1, on a budget and just wants the cheapest flight, or 2, doesn't care. It will appeal to them. DL isn't necessarily going after the high roller here, but that causal flier that would normally choose WN, or whatever the cheapest that shows up in Travelocity. They're not going to care about changes, and they're already going to pay for bags, the seat assignments might be an issue for them though.

E flights should be avoided by any DL frequent flyer. You can't book into Economy Comfort and on the one occasion I made the mistake of buying this fare, my upgrade was not processed correctly. Silvers were sitting in F while I sat in a middle seat in Y.

I thought E fares only got upgraded after all others had been upgraded. Not 100% sure on it though, but I thought there was some strange rule in regards to upgrades.

+1 - People get all hot and bothered that these fares exist. But, the bottom line is that there is a market for these seats, nobody is twisting anybody's arm to buy them and it's highly unlikely that in the low-roller market, people are calculating in the risk of changes and the like.

If an employer requires an employee to use an E-fare to go on a trip they didn't really want to take, would that be considered arm twisting?