When WestJet first introduced their ultra-restricted basic fare, I thought the naming was odd. “Econo (Lowest)” sounds almost identical to, well, “Econo”. And there’s really nothing in the name to clearly warn buyers.

If if you buy it on WestJet’s website, you have to accept the terms and conditions for the fare. But that’s really more of a CYA thing for WestJet. Face it. When buying online, most people just click through the T&Cs and pop-ups without actually paying attention.

I keep an eye on Westjet on Facebook and Twitter, simply out of interest. Now that Econo (Lowest) is so widespread, one of the common themes is ... anger from WestJet customers when they try to pay for a change or when they try to select seats. “What the &$@% do you mean I can’t pay you more money to make a change” is now a very common question.

It’s not a mistake that any Flyertalkers would make — we get this stuff. But I can totally see how the average traveler could get confused by this. Econo (Lowest) versus Econo. It’s hardly clear that there’s a big difference.

Other airlines help to differentiate by defaulting to the lowest “non-basic” fare in their online purchase process. (They show the basic option, but default to the lowest non-basic.) Others, like United, let you select whether to exclude basic fares from your search results at all. And I’ve seen one (Delta, I think?) where selecting basic leads to an up sell offer that really, really clearly highlights the difference, and shows the exact cost difference. All good stuff.

But it starts with the name. Econo (Lowest) vs Econo? Bloody confusing for most.