Last edit by: WineCountryUA
Related thread: Basic Economy Airport and Plane Experiences (First or Second Hand)
If purchased on united.com you will have to accept a warning about choosing Basic Economy and there will be orange "Basic Economy" highlights everywhere during the booking process.
Link to UA's description of how these fares will work: Basic Economy.
Here are the key facts:
To avoid domestic BE fares ITA Matrix ~bc=N . Ignoring them on international flights is much trickier because they do not have a consistent pattern in the fare basis; it appears to change by market / region. (That said, as UA is lifting BE from legacy GDS systems, it may result in them disappearing from ITA Matrix anyway).
Google Flights -- select 1 Carry-on bag
NO UNUSED TICKET MAY BE USED TOWARD THE PURCHASE
OF A BASIC ECONOMY TICKET.
-------
NO RESIDUAL VALUE MAY BE USED TOWARD THE PURCHASE
OF A BASIC ECONOMY TICKET.
How is this different from buying up BE to regular economy?
related threads
New UA/*A TATL -LGT Economy fare - no free first bag, no changes/upgrades allowed
Benefit impact of restricted economy fares on UA Elites (Basic Econ, -LGT, Light Econ
Pre-announcement speculation thread (now closed) New "Budget Economy" fares
United's Basic Economy - Discussion, Q&A, ... {Archive}
If purchased on united.com you will have to accept a warning about choosing Basic Economy and there will be orange "Basic Economy" highlights everywhere during the booking process.
Link to UA's description of how these fares will work: Basic Economy.
Here are the key facts:
- No free seat assignments until check-in. Seats will be assigned by the system. Flyers (including elite) have the option to purchase regular economy and preferred economy (white seats with black triangle on seat map) seats after ticket purchase. E+ seats are not available for purchase until check-in. If you don’t purchase an advance seat assignment, your seat will be automatically assigned to you prior to boarding, and you won't be able to change your seat once it's been assigned.
- No guarantee of adjacent seats with companions
- No voluntary ticket changes after 24 hour purchase period including SDC (occasionally 1K's have successfully used Same Day Standby and received a confirmed seat without penalty)
- Carry on limited to one personal item unless the customer is a MP Premier member, primary cardmember of a qualifying MileagePlus credit card, or Star Alliance *G, or traveling on an international BE product
- Customers ineligible for carry-on who bring one to the gate will be charged a $25 convenience fee to gate-check in addition to standard baggage fees (source: @united twitter)
- Customers are not eligible for premium cabin upgrades either via CPU, mileage upgrade award or PlusPoints
- Customers will board in the last boarding group (currently Group 5) unless the customer is a MP Premier member, primary cardmember of a qualifying MileagePlus credit card, or Star Alliance *G, or traveling on an international BE product
- Companions on same PNR will have same boarding group and carry-on if one on the PNR has a waiver
- No combinability with regular economy fares or partner carriers. Interline travel is not permitted.
- Normal PQPs / RDMs based on fare and elite multipliers
- No PQFs
- Flight(s) do count towards the 4 flight minimum for UA-operated
- Full Lifetime mileage
- Domestic Basic Economy tickets will use booking code 'N'. International BE can be in any class.
- Online check-in only with paid checked bag, otherwise need to see a United representative to verify the onboard bag allowance and receive a boarding pass
- Canceling a basic economy ticket will receive a flight credit for the price of the ticket, minus a fee. For domestic flights, the fee is $49.50 for one-way tickets and $99 for roundtrip tickets. For international flights, the fee is $99.50 for one-way tickets and $199 for roundtrip tickets
To avoid domestic BE fares ITA Matrix ~bc=N . Ignoring them on international flights is much trickier because they do not have a consistent pattern in the fare basis; it appears to change by market / region. (That said, as UA is lifting BE from legacy GDS systems, it may result in them disappearing from ITA Matrix anyway).
Google Flights -- select 1 Carry-on bag
NO UNUSED TICKET MAY BE USED TOWARD THE PURCHASE
OF A BASIC ECONOMY TICKET.
-------
NO RESIDUAL VALUE MAY BE USED TOWARD THE PURCHASE
OF A BASIC ECONOMY TICKET.
How is this different from buying up BE to regular economy?
related threads
New UA/*A TATL -LGT Economy fare - no free first bag, no changes/upgrades allowed
Benefit impact of restricted economy fares on UA Elites (Basic Econ, -LGT, Light Econ
Pre-announcement speculation thread (now closed) New "Budget Economy" fares
United's Basic Economy - Discussion, Q&A, ... {Archive}
United's Basic Economy - Discussion, Q&A, ...Now cancellable for a fee
#16
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Chicago
Programs: United 1k, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Plat
Posts: 231
I'm trying to book international economy through Amex and they don't seem to be able to exclude basic economy fares. I have tried on three separate occasions to book fare classes and prices that I thought would have given me full fare economy but to no avail. If anyone has any advice it would be very much appreciated.
#17
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: PHL
Programs: AA Gold, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 480
Apologies in advance for a somewhat newbie question, normally an AA flyer. I have to purchase BE for work purposes since it's the cheapest fare. Not a fan of the cheap seats, so do I have the ability to buy out of BE to first? I've never had an issue with upfareing on AA, but wasn't sure if that was possible on UA. Destination is SJU, if that matters. Thanks!
#18
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: SFO/SJC
Programs: UA Silver, Marriott Gold, Hilton Gold
Posts: 14,884
Apologies in advance for a somewhat newbie question, normally an AA flyer. I have to purchase BE for work purposes since it's the cheapest fare. Not a fan of the cheap seats, so do I have the ability to buy out of BE to first? I've never had an issue with upfareing on AA, but wasn't sure if that was possible on UA. Destination is SJU, if that matters. Thanks!
If this is a domestic (or at least not long-haul), you should be able to do this by first buying up to regular economy. Then you should be able to buy up to F (if available) from there.
#19
Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 5
Hi I just upgraded my travelers from basic economy to economy. In doing so we’re supposed to have the ability to pick our own seats, right? When I go to seat selections it’s asking us to purchase seats with a message that pops up that says
“There are no complimentary seat assignments available at this time. You'll be assigned a seat at no charge prior to boarding, or you can purchase an available seat on the seat map.”
Which it wouldn’t be complimentary seating since we already paid for it when we upgraded from basic economy to economy. Is this right and even though I upgraded to economy I still have to purchase a seat?
“There are no complimentary seat assignments available at this time. You'll be assigned a seat at no charge prior to boarding, or you can purchase an available seat on the seat map.”
Which it wouldn’t be complimentary seating since we already paid for it when we upgraded from basic economy to economy. Is this right and even though I upgraded to economy I still have to purchase a seat?
#20
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: SFO/SJC
Programs: UA Silver, Marriott Gold, Hilton Gold
Posts: 14,884
Hi I just upgraded my travelers from basic economy to economy. In doing so we’re supposed to have the ability to pick our own seats, right? When I go to seat selections it’s asking us to purchase seats with a message that pops up that says
“There are no complimentary seat assignments available at this time. You'll be assigned a seat at no charge prior to boarding, or you can purchase an available seat on the seat map.”
Which it wouldn’t be complimentary seating since we already paid for it when we upgraded from basic economy to economy. Is this right and even though I upgraded to economy I still have to purchase a seat?
“There are no complimentary seat assignments available at this time. You'll be assigned a seat at no charge prior to boarding, or you can purchase an available seat on the seat map.”
Which it wouldn’t be complimentary seating since we already paid for it when we upgraded from basic economy to economy. Is this right and even though I upgraded to economy I still have to purchase a seat?
You can keep checking - things do change - people might cancel, buy up, change flights, etc, so free seats could become available again. Failing that, you could elect to pay for one of the paid seats (IIRC, the option to buy to E+, though not sure about preferred, isn't available on a basic ticket). As you get closer to departure, and especially at check in, things can get better. You have elites (silvers) who are eligible to move into E+, others who might buy up, etc. In the absolute worst case, you;'ll be assigned a seat automatically at check in or at the gate, for free, even if the seat was one of the paid options from earlier.
#21
Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 5
Even for regular economy, for non-elites, there are free seats (those in white), and paid seats (Economy+, those in blue with extra legroom, and I think you can also buy preferred now, which are the same as the regular white seats, but they are closer to the front - they are half white half dark blue (IIRC), and used to be only available for certain pax - elites, corporates, etc.). When all the free seats are already selected, the message you are getting pops up, because, there are no free seats left to select.
You can keep checking - things do change - people might cancel, buy up, change flights, etc, so free seats could become available again. Failing that, you could elect to pay for one of the paid seats (IIRC, the option to buy to E+, though not sure about preferred, isn't available on a basic ticket). As you get closer to departure, and especially at check in, things can get better. You have elites (silvers) who are eligible to move into E+, others who might buy up, etc. In the absolute worst case, you;'ll be assigned a seat automatically at check in or at the gate, for free, even if the seat was one of the paid options from earlier.
You can keep checking - things do change - people might cancel, buy up, change flights, etc, so free seats could become available again. Failing that, you could elect to pay for one of the paid seats (IIRC, the option to buy to E+, though not sure about preferred, isn't available on a basic ticket). As you get closer to departure, and especially at check in, things can get better. You have elites (silvers) who are eligible to move into E+, others who might buy up, etc. In the absolute worst case, you;'ll be assigned a seat automatically at check in or at the gate, for free, even if the seat was one of the paid options from earlier.
#22
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: SFO/SJC
Programs: UA Silver, Marriott Gold, Hilton Gold
Posts: 14,884
sorry you had to learn the hard way.
#23
Moderator: United Airlines
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Plat 1.995MM, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott Plat/LT Gold, Hilton Silver, IHG Plat
Posts: 66,850
Unoccupied economy seatmap coding
#24
Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 5
I typically don’t buy BE, but any seats you had available to purchase on your BE tickets are the same ones you would have been able to select for free on a regular economy ticket. If there was no option to buy seats when they were BE, wouldn’t be much of a surprise to else there were no comp. Selections available after upgrading the fare type.
sorry you had to learn the hard way.
sorry you had to learn the hard way.
I should have went with delta/Jetblue/AA which was more money up front but would have been cheaper in the long run. They didn’t have all these caveat that you seem to have to navigate with united. I rarely fly so this is a lesson learned and something I will be mindful of in the future. I wonder if I contact united if I can have my ticket downgraded back to basic economy and refunded. It's the principal of the matter. I don't like feeling like I'm double paying for something.
So at check in the united economy seats will be available for me to choose and it's not going to be a case of United assigning random seats for me? My thing is I'm flying with first time flyers and anxiety about traveling will be at a max level. So it's important for us to be seated together and not randomly placed.
Last edited by WineCountryUA; Feb 5, 2022 at 2:40 pm Reason: merged consecutive posts by same member
#25
Moderator: United Airlines
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Plat 1.995MM, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott Plat/LT Gold, Hilton Silver, IHG Plat
Posts: 66,850
UA has four categories of economy seats
Economy Plus -- bookable for free by some elites or by subscription or occasionally by anyone if the rest of the seats are occuplied
Preferred -- "reserved" for corporate customers or elites, access able before checkin by anyone for fee or free after checkin
Blocked -- UA will block seats for those with medical needs or family groups (especially with minors) -- need to call for access
Rest of economy -- free for any non-Basic Economy passenger
BE passenger have no say in placement which could be in any part of the entire economy cabin (including E+, preferred or rest of economy)
Blocked and preferred seats will open up at check-in for any non-BE. Getting adjacent seats for a large group at that time will depend on how full the flight is.
Note is worth checking the flight from time to time as people plans change and seats may open up. Also at check-in and afterward "free seats" will open up for the above reasons and as elites upgrade or move into E+. There is quite of bit of seat churn closer to departure.
Last edited by WineCountryUA; Feb 5, 2022 at 3:35 pm
#26
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: PHL
Programs: AA Gold, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 480
#27
Join Date: Apr 2015
Posts: 68
United Explorer card and basic economy
I currently have a United explorer card and an economy plus subscription. I am curious on how priority boarding and my EP sub would play with a basic economy fare? Reading the terms of the benefits gets a little confusing.
Anyone have thoughts or insight how these 2 products/offerings pair with each other?
TIA
Anyone have thoughts or insight how these 2 products/offerings pair with each other?
TIA
#28
Join Date: Jun 2018
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 97
Seat selection isn't included with basic economy tickets, so your E+ subscription doesn't come into play at all when flying BE.
With the United explorer card, you do retain your priority boarding order (group 2), have the ability to bring a full size carry on, and check a bag free.
With the United explorer card, you do retain your priority boarding order (group 2), have the ability to bring a full size carry on, and check a bag free.