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aa.com Economy / Coach Pricing Display & Choice Bundles (consolidated)

Old Dec 13, 2012, 3:04 pm
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AA is now offering three types of Economy fares via AA.com:

Choice (fare basis code ends in 1) = Lowest Fare, earn AA miles
Choice Essential (fare basis code ends in 2) = Change Fee (depends on detailed fare rules), 1 Checked Bag, Group 1 Boarding, Earn AA miles
Choice Plus (fare basis code ends in 7) = above Choice Essential benefits plus 50% Bonus RDM, Same-Day Flight Change, Same-Day Standby, Premium Beverage, No Change Fee, Earns base miles plus 50% bonus miles
Business/First as Choice Plus, plus 3 checked bags, No change fee (domestic only), priority baggage delivery at carousel, 50% class of service bonus miles

(Updated 1 Mar 2015)

See this page at aa.com for bundled services.

AmericanAirlines has posted some comments and clarifications in Post 144.

Originally Posted by hillrider
(1Mar 2015) The fee for the "choice plus" bundled extra now ranges from $80-80 each way, up from $80.

Choice plus extras are comprised of:
  • 1 checked bag
  • Group 1 Boarding
  • No change fee (any difference in fares would still apply; valid for American Airlines operated flights)
  • Same-day flight change
  • Same-day standby
  • Premium beverage on board
  • Earn 50% more AAdvantage miles
See these related links:

AA.com: Tailor Your Travel | Enhance Your Travel with Combined Features

FT: AA economy fare basis now ends with a number
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aa.com Economy / Coach Pricing Display & Choice Bundles (consolidated)

 
Old Dec 12, 2012, 10:11 am
  #91  
 
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Originally Posted by FlyMeToTheLooneyBin
But since you have to pay the fee upfront, you need to be someone who changes flights every other flight to make it worth it, because paying $68 twice almost makes up for the $150 (standard change fee cost) that you would have to pay if you wanted to make a change; you know, standard "self-insurance" argument.
Is it $68/$88 each way or $68/$88 for the RT?
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Old Dec 12, 2012, 10:11 am
  #92  
 
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Originally Posted by NYCQuaker
Is it $68/$88 each way or $68/$88 for the RT?
Round-trip.
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Old Dec 12, 2012, 10:14 am
  #93  
 
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Originally Posted by FlyMeToTheLooneyBin
Round-trip.
That being said, I don't know why you'd ever opt for the $68 over the $88 given the mileage bonus. Maybe AA is hoping for unsavvy non-frequent flyers to pull benefits from the $68, because their marginal benefit from the $88 would seem to be less.
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Old Dec 12, 2012, 10:17 am
  #94  
 
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Originally Posted by NYCQuaker
That being said, I don't know why you'd ever opt for the $68 over the $88 given the mileage bonus. Maybe AA is hoping for unsavvy non-frequent flyers to pull benefits from the $68, because their marginal benefit from the $88 would seem to be less.
Actually, I just thought of something. When you change your ticket using the Choice Essential/Plus privilege, does it stay as Choice Essential/Plus? This could be a differentiator from the self-insuring $150 change fee option. Every time you make a change, you pay $150 in the old case, but with Choice, maybe you can keep making changes (into same fare flights) without paying a cent beyond the $68.
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Old Dec 12, 2012, 10:25 am
  #95  
 
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Originally Posted by FlyMeToTheLooneyBin
Probably some annotation on the passenger manifest, similar to how they remember your pre-ordered meals.
That's probably one of the reasons they are equipping FAs with tablets.
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Old Dec 12, 2012, 10:27 am
  #96  
 
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Sooo confused
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Old Dec 12, 2012, 10:31 am
  #97  
 
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Originally Posted by NYCQuaker
That being said, I don't know why you'd ever opt for the $68 over the $88 given the mileage bonus. Maybe AA is hoping for unsavvy non-frequent flyers to pull benefits from the $68, because their marginal benefit from the $88 would seem to be less.
Some people don't care about mileage accumulation.
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Old Dec 12, 2012, 10:31 am
  #98  
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This is confusing.
In Amadeus I can only see standard fare classes and have no option to add on these options...
When will this be added to GDS for sale?
I don't see many new fare basis either.
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Old Dec 12, 2012, 10:42 am
  #99  
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Hilarious to see the airline who told us that bundles were inherently bad (like being forced to pay for hot water with the hotel room rate without having a choice to pay for it separately ... or was that bags with airline tickets?) is now introducing ... bundles.
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Old Dec 12, 2012, 10:44 am
  #100  
 
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Originally Posted by AA_EXP09
This is confusing.
In Amadeus I can only see standard fare classes and have no option to add on these options...
When will this be added to GDS for sale?
I don't see many new fare basis either.
Remember the big deal last year or the year before when AA wanted to drop GDSs? One of the reasons they used was that going directly to their own application interface would allow them more flexibility in selling add-on products. Perhaps this is what they were referring to.
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Old Dec 12, 2012, 10:45 am
  #101  
brp
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Originally Posted by hillrider
Hilarious to see the airline who told us that unbundling was the best thing for the consumer introducing bundles.
Actually, that seems consistent to me. The whole point of unbundling is to take it out of the base fare and offer is separately. Providing the separate features in popular groupings really is different than the bundling that they had before.

Cheers.
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Old Dec 12, 2012, 10:46 am
  #102  
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Originally Posted by dmsdfw
Remember the big deal last year or the year before when AA wanted to drop GDSs? One of the reasons they used was that going directly to their own application interface would allow them more flexibility in selling add-on products. Perhaps this is what they were referring to.
It's probably not fully a technological issue (these are different fare basis, ending with a different digit), but a marketing / channel decision.

I'm sure it will all be clear soon -- I can guarantee that Sabre, Amadeus and Galileo are all looking at this move very closely.
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Old Dec 12, 2012, 11:01 am
  #103  
 
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New (confusing and kludge) website, new terminology & pricing schema...all rolled out 2 weeks before the winter holiday season? Seems like a bit of beta testing, a calendar, and some common sense might have helped the PR for this "enhancement." (where's the icon for dope-slap?)
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Old Dec 12, 2012, 11:03 am
  #104  
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Originally Posted by brp
Actually, that seems consistent to me. The whole point of unbundling is to take it out of the base fare and offer is separately. Providing the separate features in popular groupings really is different than the bundling that they had before.
Agree that's consistent from AA's profit maximization point of view (increasing total revenues by charging $25 for a bag that costs them, on the margin, an extra $1 or $2), but not with their public statements when they launched their bag fees that basically said that bundling is inherently evil per se.
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Old Dec 12, 2012, 11:05 am
  #105  
 
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Originally Posted by Foob
New (confusing and kludge) website, new terminology & pricing schema...all rolled out 2 weeks before the winter holiday season? Seems like a bit of beta testing, a calendar, and some common sense might have helped the PR for this "enhancement." (where's the icon for dope-slap?)
Confusing indeed. You can price the outbound as just Choice, then select Choice Essential on the return and it will up the price by $68. Or, you can price the outbound as Choice Essential (which is $68 more than regular Choice), and the return will have Choice Essential as included. In the former, it still lists your outbound as just Choice, and not Essential.

I assume the Essential part affects the whole itinerary, even if you only selected it for the return.
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