ijgordon

Oh, I don't really have the slightest idea. I don't bank with Chase.
And I would never use a third party site, why have to deal with a middleman?

QuiGonJohn

I am about to book a trip for my wife and I to visit my son and see our granddaughter in North Dakota. Looks like Delta and we are looking at the Basic Economy fare. I too, as others have stated, wish Delta (and American and United) would not even sell these fares. Our BE fare would be $888 for both of us. It is $100 more to "upgrade" to Main Cabin, so we can choose our seats. If Ivnloud is correct (3 posts above mine), and we book on Delta's website, both of us on the same booking, (and I am booking with my Delta Gold Skymiles card), is it fairly likely we would be able to sit together? I don't really care where on the plane as much as we'd like to sit together. If it absolutely does not happen, that's not the end of the world. But its so damn aggravating, as the BE fare is about what the regular economy fare used to be, with seat selection. So this is really just a money grab on Delta's part. Oh, also, when you check in 24 hours ahead, do you get your seat assigments for all legs outbound and return? Or do you have to go thru that again 24 hours prior to your return flight?

Mr. Tickets

You will be able to select seas on the outbound only (assuming there are any non preferred seats to assign). Otherwise, it will be airport assignment. You will be able to (hopefully) select return seats 24 hours prior to that flight. There was a post a few days ago, reminding people that if you are on a connecting flight, so only attempt check in within 24 hours of the second flight, otherwise you will not get a seat
on the connecting flight. Since basic economy is so limited (no seats, no changes, no standby), I will really recommend avoiding those fares. If you are spending over $800.00 it would be a same to completely loose all that money if an unplanned emergency comes up. Is it worth saving a $100.00?

QuiGonJohn

Well in our case, the flights consist of Ft Laud - Minneapolis and Minneapolis - Bismarck. I'm less concerned about the MSP-BIS seating. Shorter flight, much smaller plane. So I would want to c/i 24 hrs before the first leg (FLL-MSP), but on the return wait until 24 hrs before the 2nd leg, MSP-FLL, so hopefully we can choose those seats. This is so maddening, I almost don't even want to go. It costs them no more for other people to use the seat booking engine. Just a money grab, CROOKS!

I meant to add, it's very weird how they handle the connecting flights. Most airline treat all flight in one direction (outbound OR return) the same. Just another reason they should not even have this.

kb9522

hotturnip

Here's a puzzle I haven't seen adressed:

When you book an Expedia package with economy airfare, it always puts you in basic economy. Expedia has told me there is no way to filter against that.

If I were to book an Expedia package in basic economy, once my itinerary was showing up on the DL website, would I get an offer to pay a fee for regular econom-- the way I do for Biz upgrades from normal Y? I'd be a lot more willing to book it if I could be assured I'd be able to change the class. All of my other DL bookings offer me Biz for a fee whenever I look at them (regardless of whether they're booked via DL or in a package).

[Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen an offer to upgrade to Comfort+, so maybe not?]

mnbp

The only way to get out of a non-changable, non-refundable basic economy purchase is to refund the ticket under DLs 24 hour cancellation policy. Almost certainly does NOT apply to Expedia purchased tickets though.

NOLAnwGOLD

It seems silly when people want to give a company more money and they make it really difficult....but yeah, you are sort of stuck.

Gig103

I noticed the same thing. What is even more irritating is that when you book airfare only, Expedia will only show BE results, but then when you click through it offers "Upgrade to the main cabin for $XXX" and all the perks that it gets you. So why not under package deals? Makes me wonder if the airlines are being stingier with bulk tickets to try and drive direct-purchase fares.

3Cforme

I'm looking at an Expedia flight+hotel package that shows upgrades to Main Cabin, Comfort+, and First on the flight confirmation screen, just as when booking flight only. Should I be looking at something else?

hotturnip

OK . . . I swear this is new. I've booked a lot of packages, and I've not seen this before.
That solves my immediate problem.

But just out of curiosity: WILL Delta offer you a main cabin upgrade on the website in the same way they do Comfort+ or First?

jamesteroh

Has anyone with a chase card had luck upgrading to the next available fare class on an E fare booked on the chase travel portal I have a lot of chase points but everytime I look for a delta tickets its an E class. I don't mind paying the difference to delta for the next fare class but I don't want Delta telling me I cant pay to upgrade the fare class since it wasn't booked with them

bost

Push this button:

danielonn

Could they ask Chase to cancel and rebook them in the regular Main Cabin perhaps even in Comfort+ and ask them to cover the change fee and difference? Even if its the regular Main Cabin fare the OP could pay the difference for Comfort+. Your argument is that you were booked into a restrictive fare that does not allow for seat assignments until checkin or at the airport.

The exclude E fare button while good in theory there should still be the warning message and a box to tick that you agree to the terms and restrictions imposed. Furthermore an option that lets you look for an Upfare into the regular Main Cabin with a message like "For only $25 more you can select your seat during the purchase process".

Also I think there needs to be a clause on third party booking sites and a way on the screen for you to say" Yes I want to proceed with this fare or find me a fare without restrictions or cancel the search". I think third party websites should give you options on which fare to book or just book directly with the airline.

This is the major downfall of Expedia and other third party booking websites that they let you select Economy, Premium Economy , Business Class and First Class. But when it comes time to booking the fare they slap you in the face with Basic Economy. Now how is a layman supposed to know that a $1,200 fare to Europe is Basic Economy when they paid the same for non Basic Economy?

Yes you have 24 hours to cancel and rebook but its helpful to know this going in like on Delta.com you are given a warning message when booking a Basic Economy fare. To me its not right that the third party does not inform you of the fare. Heck people got a $300 r/t on JFK in a regular Y fare vs booking on a Basic Economy fare for near the same cost. With the various sales and pricing structures how is one to know what is Basic Economy and what isn't before booking even with a third party.

Lets put it into perspective lets just say I booked three tickets to see my favorite band at $100 each for what I thought were good seats only to get the message after that my seats will be assigned within the section selected but no guarantee of row etc. the day of the show. There are no refunds or returns. But for the $125 I can select my exact seats. How would I know without being informed that I could not select these seats for $25 more.

A great way to get around this is having an upsell message that says "For $25 more per ticket you can select your exact seats".

The same goes for guaranteed cabins on a crusie on the cruiseline websites I see the message saying for $50 more you can select your cabin within your category if its important to you" . All you do then is select the "Choose my Cabin" option and select your cabin. Airlines could run it this way even on third party websites. Very simple IT.

bost

I thought Chase was pretty clear before but they literally changed their UI this weekend. The new one is about as foolproof as they could get without resorting to obnoxious flashing popups or red-alert klaxon sounds

Though the feature to disable the basic economy results in search entirely (and therefore sort prices without them) is gone. Owell.



And after pressing select: