Very true. Usually at a much higher fare, though.

I'd be interested to know how the refundable Y fares are selling, considering they don't show up on the web, and you have to call in to get them (and to even get a price). I know that the government fares are refundable Y so those probably show up in that bucket (but at a discounted rate). A recent article also talked about several corporate travel departments that have deals with VX, so maybe those fall into that bucket too. But I wonder how many individual travelers actually go through the trouble of calling up reservations to find out the price and book this.

Sometimes. However, if your client requires fully refundable fares and you don't want to take a risk of not having an F seat, there is not much of a choice.

Agreed.

Aviators, I don't think many people know about them, quite honestly.

Do the fully refundable Y seats book into Main Cabin, or Main Cabin Select? MCS isn't exactly terrible (pitch is comparable to most domestic F, sometimes there's empty middle seats to make it into pseudo-F).

Fully refundable Y goes into MC. MCS is still an upgrade, unless a specific company has an upgrade deal or they make an exception. MCS fares are still non-refundable and go into a credit if cancelled, although they are changeable at will without penalty.

Basically 4 types of paid fares: refundable Y, non-refundable Y, non-refundable MCS, non-refundable F.