Originally Posted by DCP2016

The airline PR/Marketing departments all should receive humongous raises for how they have misled the public and many on this forum (and most in this thread) on Basic Economy and the service fees.

As far as Basic Economy, it is a scam to make more money. Between 2008-2016 when I did large amounts of flying I remember regular economy tickets being $90-$130 one way on the various routes I've flown. On those same routes/airlines today, those prices are still there, only those are now the Basic Economy prices. The regular economy fares are now +$30 domestically, so now I am paying $120-$160 for those same tickets. Basic Economy wouldn't be bad if I could add in options a la Spirit, Allegiant, and Frontier, but they don't allow you to select a seat for a fee, add in extras etc. It's a horrible product using the old regular economy fares.

The fees: this is mainly checked baggage fees, but also includes "preferred" seat fees and to a bit of a lesser degree, food. Back around the last recession around 2007-2008, all the airlines started charging checked baggage fees to make up lost income elsewhere in order for them to survive. Same with taking away free food/snacks and making upfront aisle/window seats "preferred". Fair enough. Now that the recession is over we can get rid of those fees, right? Wrong. The airlines saw how much they were making doing it, so they continued it. They have even increased the price of a checked bag up to $30 now, and instead of "Preferred" seats being a couple of extra dollars, they are at least $20 or more depending on the length of flight. To add insult to injury, they say these increased fees are "giving us options". BS.

At this point I'm all for the legacy carriers going to the ULCC "a la carte" model, at least I can add all of my extras along with paying a decent airfare price. Not paying $160 for a one-way economy ticket that doesn't include a decent seat or a checked bag.