Introducing Air Canada Basic Economy
 

This cannot be real, https://www.aircanada.com/ca/en/aco/...in-canada.html I don't like it one bit.

No AQM and no standby/changes at all. Lol forget that.

Well, I hate to say it, but I called it.

Will AC follow UA's lead and introduce Basic Economy?

Looooool

The interesting thing is that if they introduce this as a branded fare (K...BE, M....BE) they're incentivizing frequent flyers moving away from AP or whatever loyalty program will exist in 2020. UA doesn't care if you have M FL/TG. Both are credited equally.

And from what I can tell, if I fly 1-2 times a year, what's the difference between BE, TG, and FL other than price? This is just an excuse for AC to charge more and deliver less.

But I'm happy to be proven wrong

Zone 6 boarding?

At least you can pay to select a seat... unlike UA.

But who am I kidding, the people who buy these wouldn't pay anyways and would just complain that they're left with the middle seat between two land-whales. LOL

Ughs. No AQM means no AQS, correct? My 60+ "lowest bookable fare" annual flights are about to become much more unpleasant. :(

My guess is all fares will go up over the short term and Basic Economy will end up being charged at the current Tango rates.

Ancillary fees generated $1B in revenue last year, so looks like they are looking to increase that number.

Could be ok for the not-frequent traveler, though I believe they will end up just paying the same as current Tango but get less included.

Just more confusion for the masses, especially with the recent branded fare changes.

Stupid fares for stupid people. Some will buy it, and then realize they will spend more for luggage, seat selection, etc.

Seriously. You should have to be able to pass an IQ test to fly.

FTFY

No upgrade at all as well
Details are here
https://www.aircanada.com/us/en/aco/...omy-basic.html

For now you're safe. "Now available on select routes and flights within Canada"

My guess is these fares will be only on Swoop/New Leaf Flair routes.

That is my concern.

I don't care if they want to bring out a basic economy other than to see more CBC articles how AC didn't help Person X because they purchased the cheapest fare, blah blah

However, if this pushes prices up, that will be frustrating

reminds me of when they introduced Tango on TPACS. Made a SYD go from $2000-$2500 to $4,500 in flex

What about AQD? If the company only spends on lowest-fare, I wonder if these will count towards the annual spend? If not, quite a few people, including myself would be royally screwed.

In the Skift interview with Mark Nasr (AC’s VP for loyalty and e-commerce) that was published less than a month ago, he stated:

Now, with the introduction of Economy Basic, AC has the following fare classes:
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...82ca9f4160.png

... and of course, that is the simple view. The branded fare fiasco adds additional complexity, making it even harder to ensure that you're getting the right fare brand.

Good job, AC. Way to follow Mark's guidance.

If Tango prices remain the same and Basic Economy is less, then I am all for it.

As if that's going to happen...

Did a few search and seems AC has not start selling BE fares, curious which booking code they will use, UA uses N which is occupied by discount PE on AC.

No, I meant what I said.

We will have people without a brain who will buy these "low" fares. Then they will pay extra for a seat, for luggage, and one day, a fee to probably call a 1-800 number with a question.

Then, when they see the total, they might realize they paid more than they would have if they bought another fare class. And so they will whine and complain, etc.

Wow. AC really likes to overcomplicate things. I like how Tango was supposed to be the "restricted Y" fare, but now its a more flexible Y fare, but not "flex."

At this rate, navigating AC's fares will become a full time job. I already have to call my corporate TA whenever I book because I don't want to end up in a "low flex" fare and be stuck with a massive co pay on a domestic eup.

No need for Air Canada to use specific booking/fare codes. With the Branded Fares they've introduced, Economy Basic fares can span the entire alphabet if they wish.

I assume this is in response to Canada Jetlines, FlyToo and Swoop. Allows Air Canada to offer a similar product to those carriers - Particularly once they start flying Rouge narrowbodies between major Canadian city-pairs.

It looks like they’re trying a bit of a hybrid approach compared to what we’ve seen in the US. AC is allowing a carry-on and permitting advanced seat selection for a fee. I guess it’s “better” :rolleyes:

I believe this won't be the case, it will be a disaster for corp travel portal users as well as travel agents. Also BE won't earn any AQM make it impossible to share fare codes with other fare types.

To be clear they aren't offering advanced seat selection, they're offering to let you buy it at twice the price of Tango advanced seat selection.
I wonder if seat selection is free at T-24.
I also wonder if SE will get free selection like with Tango. I doubt it.

Wowwwwwwwwwww

Branded fares have already been a disaster for my corp travel portal. My corp portal is restricted to showing FLEX and LATITUDE fares only. However, if low FLEX fares are available, my portal only shows LATITUDE and I have to call in.

I don't see why this would make it impossible to share fare codes with other fare types. With the same fare code, AC is already able to determine how many AQMs and AQDs you receive. And only the fare basis (TANGO / FLEX) shows up in your Altitude dashboard. It'd be very easy for AC to say WxxxBasic earns 0 AQM, 0 AQD, 0 AQS.

I rest my case.

Doesn't look like they're selling yet...

Not sure that matter if the fares have zero AQM/AQS?

I thought Tango was basic economy ?

That's basically how United does it. They have Y fare basis codes that book into N (basic economy).

UA had branded fares long before AC :p

It matters if you are short of AQD but have enough miles. AC introduced AQD to cut our the bottom feeders, it's possible to fly 95 segments (or 100k AQM) without hitting $20k otherwise AC wouldn't have done it, say you normally fly 155 segments and your AQD is $20,000 and now 55 of those segments are BE. You'll still have your SE segments but some chunk of your travel is now AQD less. Maybe your AQD is now $16k, or $19k, or whatever, this is a rough example. Fact is AC aren't going to award you SE status if your AQD is way below. AC wins, you lose.

Correct. This new class is called Economy Basic. Not to be confused with UA's Basic Economy which one can very easily and by default filter out of.

Not sure why this is a surprise. When AC announced branded fares in a previous investor presentation, they announced that there will be a fare brand below Tango, and here it is. There are also plans for a fare brand between Flex and Latitude.

For now. I wouldn't count on this long term. And if these basic economy fares are not meant to be mileage earning, then they won't earn mileage in any programme. No different than other non-mileage earning fares that book into regular booking codes.

The only RBD really available for AC to use at this point is F (which they use for limited ACV flights, but would be easy to re-purpose). But the whole point of them introducing branded fares is to allow re-use of existing RBDs across different fare products.

While I understand some challenges with certain booking portals and their (poor) implementations, there should not be a problem for bookings made directly in a GDS. Branded Fares/Fare Families/Fare Tiers have existed in each GDS based on what is defined by ATPCO. If an agent does not know how to actually book and price these, that's on the agent/agency for poor training, not the technology.

Also RBD has no impact on whether fare is mileage is accrued or not and at what rate.

Any AQ* that we can get, we'll take for sure.

However, up until now, AFAIK, AQD and AQM/AQS were hand-in-hand. If you didn't get one, you don't get the other.

Wow - the thread is moving fast.

Being in Switzerland and having the Branded fares in Swiss/LH for a few years - I have a few comments and a question.

1.) Will AC also disallow the free bags for *G and Altitude? On LX/LH that is the case for sure. They need to clarify this.
2.) At my work, now that they know what branded fares are - they never require the "Light" fares on LX/LH (which is really basic). It's so restrictive, risky, no seat selection, perhaps may not even get a seat due to overbooking or other issues. So - when you look at the price difference - we are always allowed to book "Classic". Here the "Classic" also gets seat selection so for your $25 you get points, seat selection, and bags.
3.) You really have to be cheap and budget tight to book this fare - I would expect most companies will figure out what it means and won't require it.

AC is taking yield-management to the next level and doing a good job at it. For some of us that will be unfortunate!!