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-   -   DL Stretching Pricing Divide Basic vs Economy (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta-air-lines-skymiles/1991517-dl-stretching-pricing-divide-basic-vs-economy.html)

n7371f Oct 15, 2019 10:39 pm

DL Stretching Pricing Divide Basic vs Economy
 
Checking for a few trips these next few weeks, it appears DAL has moved from the $20-$30 gap in pricing for Basic to regular economy to $40. Now I'm looking at west coast flights but it appears this is across the board. I figured they would eventually try and push the premium price and it appears they've done it.

Duke787 Oct 15, 2019 11:02 pm

Not the first time they've tried. The other times they've backed off. Will be interesting to see if it sticks this time.

Maybe DL sees an opening with broad AA weakness

xliioper Oct 15, 2019 11:10 pm

Examples? It's been $35 each way for most routes (domestically) for quite awhile now. AA and UA have largely matched. There are a handful of exceptions where it is lower on leisure routes and out of competitive hubs liike SEA and BOS, but that's about it.

ltp711 Oct 16, 2019 7:58 am

The difference was $60 each way for my DTW-YUL flights next month, since it's a short flight on a CRJ with no middle seats I went with the Basic price.

ethernal Oct 16, 2019 8:32 am

They try it now and again on different routes. ATL-BWI was as high as a $100 fare difference between main cabin and economy. Fares in main cabin have increased significantly from what they used to be as a result. There has been no bending down of the cost curve - basic economy tickets are the price of main cabin tickets of the olden days.

Delta can price their tickets however they like, however I have been increasingly turning to other carriers. I can get a carry-on and a big seat up front on Spirit for less than the cost of a main cabin ticket on Delta. I have to be mindful of the operational reliability issues there, but as someone who used to think I'd never book Spirit, I've been doing so increasingly over the past year. Delta's CASM-PRASM gap on nonstops out of Atlanta on even competitive routes has gotten completely out of whack. I refuse to pay $400+ for a main cabin ticket on a sub-1 hour flight time nonstop booked far in advance. O&D premium or not, it just makes me feel ripped off.

Austin787 Oct 16, 2019 8:50 am

I've seen $100 fare difference on round trip AUS-FCA (via SLC or MSP) . And basic economy on that route is $496. I can understand calling sub $200 RT fares basic economy, but having nearly $500 fare be basic economy feels like a rip off.

Often1 Oct 16, 2019 8:53 am

AA had recently started experimenting with higher differentials and that suggests it works well enough, particularly as larger numbers of corporate customers exclude BE.

findark Oct 16, 2019 9:10 am

The problem with messing with the differential is if you're not in lock-step with the competition which price should you be matching?

xliioper Oct 16, 2019 9:17 am


Originally Posted by ltp711 (Post 31634160)
The difference was $60 each way for my DTW-YUL flights next month, since it's a short flight on a CRJ with no middle seats I went with the Basic price.

EF is showing $30 difference each way on this route. I suspect you misread. These are base fares. The total amount will be slightly higher as higher fare is subject to some additional taxes.

VAVQA0BQ $107
VAVQA0ML $137

XAVOA0BQ $154
XAVOA0ML $184

TAVOA0BQ $165
TAVOA0ML $195

UAUQA0BQ $228
UAUQA0ML $258

xliioper Oct 16, 2019 9:32 am


Originally Posted by Austin787 (Post 31634332)
I've seen $100 fare difference on round trip AUS-FCA (via SLC or MSP) . And basic economy on that route is $496. I can understand calling sub $200 RT fares basic economy, but having nearly $500 fare be basic economy feels like a rip off.

EF is showing a fare difference of $45 each way on FCA fares or $90 roundtrip. So apparently there are a few domestic routes higher than $35. Nearby GEG and MSO are the regular $35 each way difference. BE fares go up to L fares generally and the fares on this route are not exactly cheap, so it's not that surprising to see fairly high BE fares. At one point, DL was experimenting with BE fares as high as Q class and you could end up with BE as an option on expensive walk-up fares. The seemed to have backed-off somewhat and no longer have Q or K BE fares.

manually Oct 16, 2019 1:08 pm

I have seen pricing with JFK as a connection in the $40s each way

xliioper Oct 16, 2019 1:50 pm


Originally Posted by manually (Post 31635351)
I have seen pricing with JFK as a connection in the $40s each way

If it's quoting a broken fare, there will be multiple fare components in a direction and you will be charged the BE fare difference on each one. The fact that it has a connection is not relevant, it whether or not the connection is pricing on a single fare component or not. You really need to look at the fare breakdown from the Fare Rules section to see how it is being constructed.

Here's an example of a broken fare being listed for JFK-LAS with connection in LAX. So you get hit with upcharge on both JFK-LAX and LAX-LAS segments because they are on different fares. (this is a roundtrip search, so it's including BE upcharge for return flight as well).


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...abc5a1bed9.png


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