True. But converting customers is more difficult where that customer's ability to jump is affected significantly by access. How badly will United suffer in the long run? Stock prices have recovered.

I can't help but think that the generous cancellation/change policies won't last long...

Now they say by end of June.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sou...hts-2017-04-27

So according to the collective wisdom on this board, everything good about WN is a result of their overbooking policy and will be eliminated if they change that policy?
And somehow WN either missed that correlation or think that they can increase fares, charge for bags, maintain a 200 buck voucher VDB, and alter their cancellation policy to eliminate those pesky Travel Funds accounts and their customers won't care because they don't overbook.
Sorry, not buying.
What I am buying is that they looked and realized that their overcapacity issues were much more about IRROPS than about overbooking and that they could make a big PR splash - while maintaining their marketing stance of the little
scrappy independent taking on the big boys - with minimal operational costs or realignment.

Don't see IRROPS the overcapacity gremlin and not WN's ultra generous cancellation policy.

Count me among those that believe this is the first step to modifying the no change fee policy.

I also believe this will affect the no change fee policy, although with AT/BS not being refundable after the flight departs, who knows?

I tend to favor WN due to no change fees, especially flying out of an airport with limited WN service.

I have relied on this generous cancellation/change policies MANY MANY MANY times.

I'm mostly a solo/impulse traveler who only want to get out of town when I feel stressed out at home/work and just as quick decide not to get out of town if I don't feel stressed out any more. WN's MAP SEARCH & its 10-MINUTE-CANCELLATION policy has been my get-out-of-town tools for many many years.

I hope they won't end their last minute cancellation policy or else travelling will become another STRESSED OUT CHORE for me!

Me too.

I can only hope that if they get rid of no change fees for A-list, it happens early enough in the year for me to get status on AA this year.

I am sorry to hear this.

We almost always offer to volunteer our seats on every flight we take and have earned ~$2 - 3 thousand in VDB funds over the years. I can only think of a few occasions when there was semi-chaos surrounding the bump process.

There is a huge upside to this that I have not seen posted in this thread (or I missed it):

If you have a connecting flight and the inbound is delayed and you miss your flight, it is MUCH MUCH easier to get on the next flight if it isn't full. This was considered normal airline operations on any airline up until recently.

There is such a thing as load factors being too high. There has to be some wiggle room, or people get stuck for days!

Which would you prefer -- a fare of $153 on a flight that's overbooked by 2 and you get stuck overnight because there are no seats available for 24 hours, or a fare of $158 on a flight that has 2 open seats? Personally I would take the latter one.

I came up with these numbers as follows: (using a 137 seat 737)

$153x139/135=$157.53

Obviously if you sell all 137 seats, not 135, the equivalent fare is even less, only 155.23.

I realize this is an oversimplification, but my point is that "the sky is falling" is not going to happen IMO.

Strawman and hyperbole aside, you are essentially saying the same thing I did earlier. A big difference is that you seem to think it's purely a PR move, with no negative effects to the customer likely, while I believe it's most likely a PR move that helps spin any resultant negative effects. ;)

I just hope they keep their cancellation policy! I love being able to cancel a WN flight and get a full credit. That's one reason I fly it on certain routes even though it's not the cheapest.

I wouldn't have a big problem if the 10-minute cancel was changed to, say, 2 hours.

I see the cancellation policy and full credit going away. At best, there will be a cancellation and full credit if you cancel within 72 hours.