what is the point of "no changes" on Basic fares
 

when you can just cancel and rebook anyway? what am i missing here?

This mostly just seems to be a marketing scare tactic from what I can see. DL also advertises their BE fares as "non-changeable", and that they can only be canceled for partial eCredit ($99 deduction on domestic). Most people would just say it's semantics and they are changeable for a fee. Further, the Fare Rules on DL BE fares pretty much directly contradicts their marketing language.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...3fc6aeb771.png

Here's a theory: As NSX pointed out in another thread, you can't cancel only part of a Basic ticket. So if you book a roundtrip and the price of one leg has gone down and the price of the other leg has gone up, you can't automatically take advantage of the lower price on the one leg. Although there's an easy workaround (don't book Basic tickets as roundtrips), I suspect that the vast majority of WN bookings are made as roundtrips and that people will reprice less frequently than they used to.

Of course, this is giving WN some credit for thinking this through. Maybe too much credit . . . .

Yes, I guess that could be one distinction. Here is the fare rule text on changes for Basic fares. I just noticed that WN actually embeds their flat tire rule in the fare rule text and it applies to Basic fares (flat tire rule at other carriers is not publicly disclosed).

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...e8fd4607c6.png

Why? Because WN wants to upsell you to a more expensive fare.

Note also your credit will expire 6 months from purchase, which is far more punitive than any other major US carrier, and very favorable to WN in terms of breakage.

6 months may be less than most, but does anyone else let you do it for free? It seems most are $99 for domestic (back to the future).

For a company that until recently was heavily marketing that flight credits didn't expire, it's awfully punitive.

Up until recently, they were heavily marketing "bags fly free". Flight credits is small potatoes compared to that.

This was a good reminder for me that even among frequent travelers, we all have vastly different needs and priorities. I can count on my hands how many times I've checked a bag on Southwest in the last decade - probably 500 flights. Bag fees are incredibly small potatoes for me, compared to having to track expiration dates and having to buy up to WGA+ to be able to use SDC.

"what is the point of "no changes" on Basic fares"

To make the other fares look useful...

You're equating WN's "basic" fare with other carriers' BE and thus falling right into WN's trap. Remember, this is just the rebranding of a fare product that used to be priced to compete with other carriers non-BE fares. What WN has done is maintained exactly the same fare structure, while reducing the benefits on the base fare, which includes imposing an industry-trailing six month credit expiration.

It's truly despicable. Going forward, my WN flying will be limited to (a) redeeming my remaining points, and (b) routes where there is no other credible option. For an upcoming trip to Long Beach, I will fly into SNA and out of LAX in order to avoid WN.

How is that any different than what every other carrier did? And why shouldn't I equate WN's basic fare with other carriers BE? Those are the prices that seem to be matching each other.

Obviously different people have different needs. I'm just saying, for the general traveling public, no free bags is a much bigger deal than credit expiration dates.

If you bought an Early Bird and then you cancel the flight, I think you lose your Early Bird money. Anyone know if that is correct?

That issue will go away when they go to assigned seats later this year.

Already explained. If you don't get it, no point explaining further.