I have flown Basic Economy, checked bags without charge, and been assign Economy Plus seats, all automatically, after paying less for my ticket than for the quoted "Economy" ticket price.

"The Economy sections is split into 3 subsections. All three use the same non-BE ticket type / fare basis." If that is the case, how do you know what type of seats you will wind up with in what part of the plane and with what privileges/services? What, if any, lounge services do I get while flying international?

And then with some "Economy" quotes they note "refundable"?!

Is it really possible that "Economy" is divided up in so many ways?

Can we pay for less than Business and still be reasonable comfortable, or is anything less than Business a miserable experience?

THIS IS CRAZY! I see Economy fares ranging from $1309 up to $4494 departing from the same airport (IAD) at different times during the same day, all arriving at the same ultimate time (different flights from IAD to different intermediate cities before continuing onward though EWR). What kind of craziness is this? After all these years united.com is still "problematic"?

OK, I can ignore the crazy fares going though other cities, but what about the "kind of Economy" and what I will actually get for my money?