Artifact 2 of 3 · live in every release
The Inclusion Ledger
Every restoration event the index prices, as an auditable line item: the attribute that was included, the date it stopped being included, and the cheapest priced route back to it on today's menu.
An event enters the ledger only when three things hold: the attribute was part of the configuration people actually bought last year (with documentary evidence — archived fare rules, plan pages, terms); a priced path back to it exists on today's menu; and the cost of reproducing the old experience actually rose. New cheap tiers beside an unchanged incumbent can never raise the index — non-events for the experiences they don't match, genuine decreases for the ones they do. Re-bundling and fee eliminations enter as negative events on equal footing.
Verified events, July 2026
Seed entries verified against primary or multiple independent sources; these become index inputs at first print. Fee amounts are one-way, domestic US, standard (non-elite, non-cardholder) menus unless noted.
| Sector | Event | Effective | Restoration route & line item | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air travel | Southwest ends "bags fly free" (first two bags included since ~1971) — $35 first / $45 second checked bag | 2025-05-28 | Named fee: $35/bag (booked on/after date); Choice Extra fares & A-List Preferred keep 2, A-List & cardmembers keep 1 | Unbundling |
| Air travel | Southwest raises bag fees to $45 / $55 | 2026-04-09 | Named fee: +$10/bag on the 2025 line item | Fee increase |
| Air travel | Industry fee wave (jet-fuel shock): UA $45/$50 (4/3) · DL $45/$55 (4/8) · AA $45/$55 prepaid, $50/$60 airport (4/9) · AS/Hawaiian $45/$55 (4/10) · B6 peak/off-peak $39–49 / $59–69, +$10 at airport (3/31) | 2026-03/04 | Named fees; B6 requires date-dependent (peak-calendar) pricing | Fee increase |
| Air travel | American prices checked bags $5 higher in Basic Economy than Main Cabin ($55/$65 online) — the first fare-class-conditional price for an identical physical service | 2026-05-18 | Named fee, fare-class-conditional: the $5 delta is a pure tiering observable | Tiering |
| Air travel | United domestic Basic Economy: full-size carry-on not included (personal item only); standing since 2017, gate charge now $75 ($50 bag fee + $25 gate handling) | standing | Fare-class upgrade (Basic→Economy spread, ~$43–65/way on 2026 route surveys) — superset-flagged: the upgrade also buys seat selection and flexibility; the $75 gate charge prices a different attribute (bag checked, not carried on) and is excluded by the equivalence protocol | Tiering / unbundling |
| Wireless | T-Mobile force-migrates 8M+ lines from Simple Choice / ONE / Magenta / legacy Sprint plans to "Experience" tiers; ~1,100 plan codes retired, no opt-out; avg +$4/line (voice +$6, watch/tablet +$3, home internet +$6) | 2026-07-13 | Cheapest same-carrier current-menu plan weakly dominating the frozen plan-feature vector — superset by construction, flagged; published plan-to-plan crosswalk archived pre-migration | Menu removal |
| Streaming | Disney+ launches ad tier at the old ad-free price ($7.99) while ad-free moves to $10.99; ad-free ladder since: $13.99 (10/2023) → $15.99 (10/2024) → $18.99 (10/2025), ads at $11.99 | 2022-12-08 | Tier spread: ad-free minus ads — $3.00 at launch, $7.00 by late 2025; day-one restoration relative +37.5% while the entry sticker read 0% | Tiering |
| Streaming | Netflix retires Basic (cheapest ad-free): closed to new members 7/2023, removed 7/2024; cheapest ad-free $11.99 → $15.49 → $17.99 (1/2025) → $19.99 (3/2026); ads tier $6.99 → $8.99 | 2023–2026 | Tier spread: cheapest ad-free minus ads tier (~$11/mo by 3/2026); menu-removal event at Basic retirement | Tiering / menu removal |
| Streaming | Netflix charges for out-of-household profiles ("extra member" slot, $7.99 at launch) — a formerly included capability, now a line item | 2023-05-23 | Named fee: extra-member slot price | Unbundling |
| Banking | Overdraft/NSF fee revenue falls >50% from 2019 to ~$5.8B (2023); other checking fees flat | 2019–2023 | Named fees, falling — enters as a negative restoration series (the index's proof it can go down) | Negative control |