Basic Economy not an option on aa.com?
 

On aa.com, basic economy is not showing up in a search BOS-LHR. However, it does show up on google flights and expedia. How do I book BE on aa.com?

In the past, BE shows up on my searches. What has changed?

They are including both BE and Main fares underneath the "Main" column heading. Once you've selected a flight, it will break down options into BE and Main offerings.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...5b4f7cfdcd.png

Thanks for the pointer. In search, came up with this weird pricing with BE more expensive than premium economy.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...536471f910.png

AA fares are sometimes glitchy like that. It has probably been corrected. If not, you may want to jump on it.

It may not be a glitch. BE (and domestic FC) fares are dual-inventory fares (their fare basis codes start with a coach fare class) which makes it virtually impossible for fares to get "upside-down". Since the fare you get with dual-inventory fares depends on both coach and booked class inventory, if there are only seats available in higher coach classes, you will also only get higher fares in the other classes of service as well.

Airlines do not always use dual-inventory fares on international PE fares, so there is not necessarily anything to prevent BE/Main fares from getting inverted with PE. Although looking at AA PE fares to the EU, I see they use dual-inventory fares for PE fares here as well (DL and UA do not). So this may be due to some kind of inconsistency in the fare rules (perhaps unintentional) between Main and PE fares. Dual-inventory only prevents fares from getting upside-down if you have matching PE fares for each Main fare with the same fare rules. Sometimes, they can screw up and have outlier fares that don't match.

Also, when searching for roundtrips like above, you can't assume the itineraries are identical for the fares shown until you select both outbound and return directions. The higher BE/Main fares may be non-stops both ways, while the cheaper PE option may involve a connection on the return (it may be some sort of broken fare option which is not allowed with BE/Main fares).

Fine, “glitch” may not be the appropriate word. I understand what you are saying. My point was that if PE is cheaper than BE, it is poor revenue management. Not glitchy.

I amended my post as AA actually does use dual-inventory fares on PE fares to EU. However, another possibility is that it contructed some kind of broken fare option with a connection on the return flights for PE which is not allowed on BE/Main fares. The problem with roundtrip fare quotes is that you don't know if the routing is the same on both the oubound and the return flights for the different fares until you have selected the outbound flights and can see the return options. Some airline sites only quote the pricing on the outbound fares in the initial listing when searching for roundtrip fares which prevents such odd fare combinations from showing.