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Basic Economy Fare as of 2017 (also AY, BA, IB), incl. elite benefits (Master thread)

Old Jan 18, 2017, 9:12 pm
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Last edit by: IADCAflyer
What is Basic Economy?
Basic Economy is (generally) the lowest, "no-frills" Main Cabin (Economy) fare on American Airlines and their Atlantic Joint Business partners (British Airways, Iberia, and Finnair). Basic Economy fares on American Airlines book into the As the lowest fare, it has some special restrictions that other Main Cabin fares do not.

What are the Restrictions?
You can read American Airlines' web page summarizing Basic Economy for the exact details, but there are a few points that likely matter most to FlyerTalkers:
  1. Your first checked bag will cost money on a Basic Economy fare*.
  2. Your seat will be automatically assigned when you check in and unchangeable, unless you pay to change your seat. You may pay to reserve a seat any time after booking*.
  3. No elite upgrades to first class, or complimentary access to preferred seats (green on the seat map) or Main Cabin Extra (orange on the seat map)*.
  4. You will board last, in Group 9 for domestic flights or Group 8 for international flights*. On a full flight, this likely means you will have to gate check your carry-on bag (which is free)*.
  5. You will earn 50% EQMs per mile flown and 0.5 EQS per segment. You will earn full RDMs (based on fare flown) and EQDs.
  6. Changes are not permitted (worldwide from 01APR21).
  7. In IRROPS, Basic Economy customers will not be re-accommodated on other airlines, and will have to wait for the next American Airlines flight (or BA/IB/AY for INTL).

* exceptions apply for American Airlines elite-level frequent flyers as noted below.

Despite these restrictions, Basic Economy can be a good value in certain circumstances.

Are the seats or service any different?
Once you are on the airplane, the experience (seats / drinks / snacks) will be identical to regular Main Cabin.

How can I tell if I have a Basic Economy fare?
Your reservation on aa.com may say it. Basic Economy fares on American Airlines flights book into the B booking class, though Basic Economy fares on BA/IB/AY and their AA* codeshares can book into almost any revenue booking class.

I have an AA credit card, what does that get me?
Yes, if you have an American Airlines credit card that comes with preferred boarding or a free checked bag on domestic itineraries, you will receive those benefits. Additionally, if you have a Citi Executive card, you may use the Admirals Club as normal.

I have AA elite status, what does that get me?
You WILL get the following elite benefits when you buy a Basic Economy fare (note this is not an exhaustive list, basically everything not expressly forbidden is allowed):
  1. 1/2/3 checked bag fees waives, depending on status.
  2. Priority check-in / security / boarding.
  3. Lounge access, if applicable.
You WILL NOT receive the following elite benefits on a Basic Economy fare:
  1. No same-day standby or same-day confirmed flight changes, paid or otherwise.
Will I be seated with my child?
As it does today, Americans reservations system will check for families traveling with children 13 and under a few days before the flight, and attempt to seat each child with an adult. This is the same process we follow for Main Cabin customers.
Families with children over 13 will have to pay for seat assignments to be seated with their children.

I am flying on a British Airways, Iberia, or Finnair airplane, is anything different?
If you do not have AA or oneworld elite status, the restrictions are quite similar and you should expect to pay for everything: paid checked bags, paid seat selection, and no changes / cancellations. Depending on available fare classes, you may have an opportunity to earn additional redeemable miles or elite qualifying dollars by booking a BA / IB / AY flight number instead of an AA flight number; check your options and the partner earning charts on AA for each respective airline (British Airways, Iberia, Finnair).

If you have status, buckle up, because it gets technical, though there are some opportunities to cherry pick benefits and save money. This has been already summarized in the counterpart to this thread on the British Airways forum.​​, so we will not reproduce it here. Note the following correspondences between status levels:
  • AA Gold - BA Bronze - oneworld Ruby
  • AA Platinum or Platinum Pro - BA Silver - oneworld Sapphire
  • AA Executive Platinum or Concierge Key - BA Gold - oneworld Emerald
Generally, there seem to be the following opportunities for arbitrage:
  • If you are a Platinum, Platinum Pro, or Executive Platinum elite, you can generally book Iberia or Finnair-operated Basic Economy flights and not notice any baggage or seating restrictions, as long as they were not marketed by BA.
  • If you do not care about your seat assignment, you can book AA-operated flights with an IB or AY flight number and still receive a checked bag if you are Platinum or higher. You may earn more or fewer RDMs, EQMs, and EQDs.
  • If you do not need to check a bag, you can book BA-operated flights with any flight number, and can choose your seat (7 days in advance for Gold, at booking for Platinum and higher, Exit Rows for EXP).
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Basic Economy Fare as of 2017 (also AY, BA, IB), incl. elite benefits (Master thread)

Old Jan 19, 2017, 2:05 pm
  #196  
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
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Originally Posted by jordyn
Actually, the one thing that I'm optimistic about with these fares is that boarding will hopefully be less of a mess since it finally does something about AA's fare/fee structure incentivizing bringing more bags into the cabin.

You and other people seem to be worried about how long it is going to take the GAs to announce a larger number of groups. As I pointed out earlier, this is silly. Getting through the gate is never the bottleneck in getting a flight away, and in general the announcement for the next boarding group is made while the previous group is still boarding meaning that it adds no time to the boarding process at all.
I agree that more boarding groups is irrelevant. But while they might save a few minutes dealing with gate checking bags, they might also spend the same time or more taking payments on basic economy passengers that didn't know the policy or are hoping to get away with it.

I'll be curious to see how willing they are to delay a flight to take the payments, as opposed to just gate checking the bags free for the sake of operations. Over time most passengers will learn and this will become more rare though. But I bet GAs will be suffering for a few months.

Depends how many BE fares they offer on a single flight I suppose. I've flown this fare only once, on Delta last Thanksgiving. Both directions we were assigned the last row of seats that didn't recline in front of the rear lav. It made me wonder how many of those types of fares were actually on the flight. Maybe not too many.
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Old Jan 19, 2017, 2:12 pm
  #197  
 
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Originally Posted by AAlwaysAmerican
Yes, I agree. So the employer would be responsible for the forfeited fare plus the cost of a new return ticket in this scenario. I think this makes the fare very inconvenient for businesses and not worth the risk for a $25 to $50 savings when you could lose hundreds.
Agree 100%
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Old Jan 19, 2017, 2:59 pm
  #198  
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What about an Elite who can board with an early group (if I read this correctly) and on the same PNR are non status pax (one or more)

Currently, I (plat) board with Plat and when traveling with my non-status kids they are allowed to board with me (usually on the same PNR - but not always) when Plats are called

Now if we are all on the same PNR and on BE - can they board with me? Won't the GA get flagged when their big scarlett 9 starts flashing over the Jet bridge door?

What fare rules are award lowest level saver economy Y tickets going to be classified as?

Not sure what our booking engine at work (Concur) will do for this stuff?

my guess is that I could make the case that BE + carry on fee + bag fee will be greater than regular Y fare class
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Old Jan 19, 2017, 3:18 pm
  #199  
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Originally Posted by CodeAdam10
I feel badly for the GAs who have to announce a dozen boarding groups and soon also be a bag-monitor depending on ticket class.

::No carry-on for you!::

So much to do, so little time.
They already have to be bag monitors for non-compliant bags. It'll be easier when merely the presence of a carry-on indicates that it needs to be checked.

Originally Posted by arollins
Along with this, AA on time performance will go down again.
But boarding will be faster with fewer carry-ons, so it should either cancel out or the OTP should improve.

Originally Posted by AAlwaysAmerican
That is a good catch, especially for non-elites. I will need to do the math but if the basic economy fare is $100 or so less than the next cheapest fare, then this standby allowance may make it acceptable for me in certain instances. Is it safe to assume paying the $75 would get a confirmed seat on a different same day flight if the seat is available?
Theoretically, but keep in mind that you can only do this at the airport during a 45 or 60-minute window.
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Old Jan 19, 2017, 3:28 pm
  #200  
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Originally Posted by ThreeJulietTango
...Theoretically, but keep in mind that you can only do this at the airport during a 45 or 60-minute window.
Thanks for clarifying!!

Originally Posted by hiima
Exp is free same day confirmed a long as there is E inventory.
But for these fares it says:
Ineligible for Same-Day Flight Change or Same-Day Standby. No exceptions for elites.
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Old Jan 19, 2017, 3:35 pm
  #201  
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Originally Posted by TrojanHorse
Not sure what our booking engine at work (Concur) will do for this stuff?

my guess is that I could make the case that BE + carry on fee + bag fee will be greater than regular Y fare class
We have Concur. I imagine companies can configure this, but when I do a fare search, only "regular" coach fares have a green check-mark next to them indicating "compliant".

I fly a lot of MCI-LGA. I'll sometimes see the Spirit fare there (some stupid low number like $80 R/T), the Southwest and AA fares at $250 or whatever R/T. The WN and AA fares have the green check mark and the Spirit fare says "call us" next to it.

Obviously I'm happy booking AA or WN. They're nonstop and Spirit is a connection. But if I was flying to Detroit and the Spirit fare was the nonstop, I presume I could call, get read a long script about why this fare sucks and I shouldn't buy it, and then get it manually booked if I insist.

The good news is that there's no great conspiracy to force us into these fares: in fact, it's kind of hard to book them. Probably for the exact reason you suggest: if anything at all goes wrong, or if the traveler doesn't know what he/she is doing baggage-wise, they end up being a bad deal.
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Old Jan 20, 2017, 6:57 am
  #202  
 
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redeeming miles

I am sorry if it's obvious but would redeeming miles for an economy mean basic economy or regular economy?
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Old Jan 20, 2017, 7:36 am
  #203  
 
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Still wondering also if an elite FF could move to a MCE seat after being assigned a regular seat at T-24 hours.
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Old Jan 20, 2017, 7:45 am
  #204  
 
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Originally Posted by alkotik
I am sorry if it's obvious but would redeeming miles for an economy mean basic economy or regular economy?
Obvious to me that milesaaver tickets will be Regular economy tickets. No reason to think otherwise.
jay_dubya is offline  
Old Jan 20, 2017, 11:39 am
  #205  
 
Join Date: Oct 2012
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another basic economy fare question

Another question occurred to me, does anyone know what the fee will be to reserve a seat 48 hours before departure when using the basic economy fare? The rules indicate advance seat selection can be purchased 48 hours before departure. I'm curious about the cost because I'm wondering if it wouldn't bring the basic economy fare right back up to the normal economy fare range.

Originally Posted by IADCAflyer
Still wondering also if an elite FF could move to a MCE seat after being assigned a regular seat at T-24 hours.
AAlwaysAmerican is offline  
Old Jan 20, 2017, 11:44 am
  #206  
 
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Originally Posted by AAlwaysAmerican
Another question occurred to me, does anyone know what the fee will be to reserve a seat 48 hours before departure when using the basic economy fare? The rules indicate advance seat selection can be purchased 48 hours before departure. I'm curious about the cost because I'm wondering if it wouldn't bring the basic economy fare right back up to the normal economy fare range.
I suspect all of this is a bit of an experiment as they work out the financial modeling.

How much does Spirit or Frontier charge?
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Old Jan 20, 2017, 2:40 pm
  #207  
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Originally Posted by C17PSGR
I suspect all of this is a bit of an experiment as they work out the financial modeling.

How much does Spirit or Frontier charge?
Don't know about Frontier, but on Spirit you can usually pay five bucks or so for an aisle in the back. It's not much if your sole objective is to avoid a middle seat.
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Old Jan 21, 2017, 10:26 am
  #208  
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Originally Posted by pinniped
Don't know about Frontier, but on Spirit you can usually pay five bucks or so for an aisle in the back. It's not much if your sole objective is to avoid a middle seat.
this fee I could live with to get out of the middle seat
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Old Jan 21, 2017, 4:52 pm
  #209  
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will miles on those fares count toward million miler status?

(Sorry, search "million miler" "lifetime mileage" did not turn up anything)
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Old Jan 22, 2017, 3:52 pm
  #210  
 
Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 56
Originally Posted by iahphx
I haven't had to utilize it yet, but I have a strategy for the next time somebody in a middle seat asks me for my aisle seat so they can sit with their travelling companion.

"Sir, I'd like to help, but I paid $35 for this better aisle seat. If you can reimburse me for that expense, I'd be happy to help you out."

Either one of two things will happen: the man will hand me $35 (and I'd be willing to sit in the middle for $35), or he'll give up or bother somebody else. Seems fair.
That seems like something I would have thought out in my head, but sometimes people are so frazzled and helpless on the plane, my bleeding heart just wants to give them a break.

I've taken the middle seat for free before. But not for a seat that I paid extra to upgrade to (because I've never paid for an upgraded seat!!)
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