I don't see them further chopping up Main cabin section just for BE fares. Presumably, you are talking about 9:59PM flight tomorrow since every other flight is W0 or W1. Note that Silver Medallion/Amex Reserve 24 hour upgrade window for this flight has not opened up yet.

Will be interesting to see what happens to this thread when oil hits $100 ... $120 ... $150 ...

Jet fuel is already up 70% this week.

Interestingly, the spread on this exact same trip has now increased to $175 R/T. Glad I booked WN "Choice" when I did.

I should know this, but if your DM and book BE, do you still board last?

Still Zone 2 after FC.

History tells us that airlines will try to bump up fares, but leisure travelers will stop flying because they are spending their money on fuel and business travelers will stop flying because companies will start tightening budget to prepare for a recession. Airlines will cut fares to get people on the planes, and then you are the downward economic spiral.

If anything, moving near a large non-hub regional airport such as CLE where there is a lot of competition has made me even more loyal to Delta, as I am usually at or near the top of UG lists on flights to and from here (if I don't get UG'd in advance). I am willing to connect at a Delta hub.

Makes for a plausible excuse to the public, but isn't fuel already hedged? There is likely zero real impact for 6-9 months.

Other than Southwest, US airlines haven't engaged in fuel hedging for at least a decade. As with basically any kind of insurance, they've basically found it loses money overall assuming that the price spikes aren't catastrophic (arguably WN lighting money on fire for fuel hedges for a decade damaged their finances enough that it made them easy pickings for Elliott). Even the airlines that hedge (e.g. the European airlines) generally only hedge at most a low-double-digit percentage of their needs.

DL does effectively hedge out fluctuations in crack spreads by owning an oil refinery (near PHL, IIRC). UA also indirectly hedges out oil by having an IAH hub.

Airlines were heavily hedged during the great recession, only for oil prices to crash while airlines were locked into long dated contracts. If I remember correctly, and ironic if my memory does serve correct, WN was the only airline that was not hedged and that helped them wind up with a huge competitive advantage for many years. As a result, along with the realization that over the long term airlines were losing more money than they gained from hedging, and airlines being in a stronger position to be able to absorb the cost of higher fuel for longer, most airlines vowed never hedge again.

The nominal fare difference on a roundtrip booking varies anywhere between $220 for 30-day AP roundtrip V fares (if you meet Sat stay min stay requirements for them) to $130 roundtrip for one-way fares (if you don't meet min stay requirements). The roundtrip fare filings have an 'F' in second position of fare basis code, while one-way fares have an 'A' there.

The increase in differential for 30-day AP roundtrip V fares was solely due to dropping the roundtrip Basic fare price from $228 to $168 roundtrip as seen below. The 30-day AP roundtrip V Main fares have remained stable at $388. Pricing on one-way 30-day AP V fares have also remained stable at $153 each-way for Basic and $218 each-way for Main (for $65 difference on one-way bookings and $130 on roundtrips). Other one-way fares have same $65 each-way differential. For 21-day and shorter AP roundtrip fares, the differentials are $160 on a roundtrip booking.

Could this also be because those who booked Comfort Basic have not yet been assigned seats? I am really curious regarding how seat assignments and availability will be prioritized with all of the new fare structures. Will status upgrades from Main only be done after all of the Comfort Basic seats have been assigned? I believe this new fare structure will greatly reduce upgrade opportunities.

As I noted upthread, poster seemed to be looking at a flight before 24 hour mark when Silver Medallion upgrade window opens. I wouldn't read much into one datapoint. Comfort Basic fares don't look to be that widely deployed yet (they don't have any on ATL-LAS).