Pharaoh

(November 19, 2015) - Beginning on November 19, 2015, Delta will introduce Basic Economy fare product (E booking class) in select long haul markets. Basic Economy is Delta’s successful value-fare in domestic and Latin markets. Expanding to these markets gives travelers more product options when traveling on Delta.

These markets are:

All Points of Sale between*:

Atlanta (ATL) and Johannesburg (JNB)
*Excludes connecting flights


U.S. Point of Sale between:
Atlanta (ATL) and Narita (NRT)
Minneapolis- St. Paul (MSP) and London (LHR)
Seattle (SEA) and London (LHR)

Often1

More product differentiation: J, W, Y & S(teerage).

Better consumer choice, good for DL and the passenger.

woodford02A

interesting. Why do you think they chose these city pairs? I would have expected this product on markets with more direct LCC competition like NY-London, Iceland, Scandanavia, Germany, etc.

BenA

These routes strike me as the most business centric O&D routes they could experiment with. Perhaps they are choosing them to prove that E fares allow them to retain high-fare business travelers while discounting extra inventory.

Currently, the difference is a minimal $20/each way for SEA-LHR. If and only if that continues to hold, this is mostly just a $40 price hike for these markets. But it's inevitable that they'll eventually offer sale fares only in E class, and when that happens and the price difference becomes more dramatic, it could spell the end of Delta as an attractive and affordable option for international leisure travel.

One thing's clear: between Comfort+ changes and now this, iDelta is no longer the airline to select if you care about where you sit on the airplane and expect your elite status to give you a choice of seats.

3Cforme

Why is it 'inevitable' that sale fares will only be in E? There are sales (not just restricted fares) in J cabins across destinations and carriers routinely.

IMHO they'll find many people ready to spend far more than $20 for a seat assignment on a long haul flight.

BrentHutto

Delta's partner Virgin Atlantic charges around 40 bucks each way for the privilege of reserving a seat when you purchase a ticket well in advance.

In effect, on these flights Delta is offering a discount of around 20 bucks each way for forgoing advance seat reservation.

Works out about the same to my mind.

BenA

Much of the discussion around basic economy has centered around the price difference. When it's $20 each way, you can discuss it as unbundling - think of it as a marginal fee you pay for seat selection, similar to checked baggage. So far, it seems like E and V fares are always filed in pairs with a small, marginal difference between them.

What I believe will come eventually is that Delta files many fare sales only in E class - especially unpublished/competitive sales - without a matching V fare. That will make the buyup to V class $100 or more from the basic fare.

I too believe they'll find people willing to pay for what used to be included in a ticket price, hence the inevitability. That won't be me, or anyone who cares about a good onboard experience.

But it will reduce the number of international trips I personally take, as I become unwilling to book fare sales I otherwise would have taken advantage of.

KeepClimbingDick

How do these fares appear in corporate travel booking sites? For example, could a Gold, Platinum or Diamond inadvertently book these fares and get "screwed" out of preferred and C+ seating or potential upgrades?

Often1

DL does a great job of making these an entire separate column. Some software packages do a better job than others. But, either way, the instruction should simply be not to book an E fare.

nmoe

Right now we use Concur and our only online bookable option is an E fare if it available for a flight. I end up having to call to book up to the next fare (wasting my time and my companies money).

SmartSky

I was just checking ATL-NRT fare, and it sure has a (E) class fare, but the fare basis starts with (T) with a BasicEconomy product designator.

ATL - NRT
Fare Basis : TLX87PBD (TLX87P"B=BasicEconomy"D)

Then, ATL-MIA route has (E) class fare starting with a (V) fare basis, and with a MainCabin product designator.

ATL - MIA
Fare Basis : VAUQL0MA (VAUQL0"M=MainCabin"A)

I always thought the first character showed the booking class, but maybe I was wrong and it's very confusing!

mnbp

https://pro.delta.com/content/deltap...mestic-br.html

You need to check the seventh character of the Fare Basis.

bennos

Maybe, except what we've seen is the E fares basically replace the previously available seat-reservation-included V+ fares, pushing those up $20 or so, so only good for the passenger if you believe that paying more for what you previously got at a lower price is good (or, alternately, paying the same but getting less is good).

injera

We use "Orbitz for Business" which I find generally terrible. However, it does not allow us to book an "E" fare (at least when i tried a couple dummy bookings, my usual routes dont have E fares available). Not sure if its an orbitz thing or a company thing.

My employer also prohibits us from flying on Spirit, Frontier or Allegiant (which surprisingly has some folks in our Detroit office upset - why they'd prefer Spirit over Delta is beyong me)

injera

Is there any data on how well these E fares are selling? I've been a big believer that 75% of the traveling population really could care less about service/amenities/perks and just wants the cheapest fare possible (yes, they'll complain about being stuck with 31" pitch in the middle seat or having to gate check their overstuffed carry-on but will still buy the lowest fare possible).

It's not worth it to me to save $10 on a DTW->FLL flight or $20 on an ATL->JNB but can certainly appreciate a family of four being interested in saving $80 roundtrip for their once in a lifetime trip to Disney or the annual trip to see Grandma.