Originally Posted by
Goldorak
I strongly disagree. This is not a welcome change. You all know what's going to happen (remember when they did the light fares for Y ?) : the current (high) fares will become the light fare and you will need to add all the options. And will they add light to all sub-fares (J, C, D, I, Z, O), as they did for Economy ?
J-class should come with perks (priority services, higher bags allowance, lounge, etc) and you pay for this. Since one month, you have to pay for your seat, and now for lounge access and for bags ?? Come on !
Think about :
- your travel companions without status, for which you will have to pay for lounge access
- the company bookings using SBT where it's always systematically the lowest fare that pops up and travelers will have to justify why they want a highest fare, etc etc.
THIS HAS TO STOP !
I see your point, and that's certainly bad news for status-less pax.
My optimistic take on this is that price pressure would at some point force AF to price this "light J" at a more affordable rate, be it just to pop up at the top of the cheap flights list.
We do have some very acceptable domestic Y rates these days despite the crazy 2023 price grid. Pretty sure unbundling helps a lot for this. I'd take 30% lower J tickets on long haul if status perks fill the gap.