Gotta love all these premium enhancements :)

DL is telling you that a (middle) C+ seat is worth $10 less than a regular main seat 4-5 weeks out during shoulder season on a leisure route... Ooh "value"!
Or look at it as a steep $60 upgrade over main basic for the "basic" customer... Ooh "rip-off"!
I don't see any parties of two or more booking this.

Basic travelers, due to the inflexibility of the ticket, are not booking as far in advance as DM's and PM's who get the comp upgrades either, so not sure that matters much.
Still would be crazy in some situations to see a C+ seat map with 7 seats open including some windows and aisles, with 6 C+ basic secretly sold in the background, only to have the entire map get "X"ed out when the 7th C+ basic seat is sold. But I think DL will limit the number of basic C+ seats sold in advance to prevent high-school or small college basketball teams from booking up 12-18 seats for less than the cost of main.

Perhaps the average height and weight of middle C+ seat occupants increase slightly once this is rolled out system-wide. I can see the FT thread on that subject coming in 2026.

That's interesting; I was not aware of that. However, that does correspond with what I've seen on a few Asian carriers like CX and CI- if you book the higher fare classes for PE, it will put you into J for your regional connecting flight.

I could see myself buying this on a long haul domestic. A likely-middle is easier to stomach with a little extra legroom, a few drinks (2 services), some pistachios, and a higher likelihood of bin space via early boarding so I don't have to wait at baggage claim after a long flight.

No - they're going to buy the fare purposely and then think they have a reason after the fact that the restrictions they had to deliberately acknowledge and agree to before advancing through the booking process now shouldn't apply to them and their "unique" situation.

Not that I would consider it, but where I could see some savior people considering it is on domestic flights with a PS cabin that is sold as C+ and where a middle seat is at least more tolerable and bearable, or on a 767 with no middle seats to get stuck into. If your group is large enough, you may even exceed the number of C+ middle seats in this scenario (e.g. on the A330-300, there are only 3 middle seats in PS so if you book C+ Basic for 4 or more people, at least 1 person is guaranteed a non-middle).

While PS fares originally booked into F cabin on domestic segments, they never provided for Sky Club access on their own.

I am waiting for the Delta One Ultra Basic fare to launch. No pre-assigned seat, you must check in with the app (counter extra), no checked bag allowance ($299 per bag), no lounge access, one bag of Bischoff cookies for Diamond members with eligible credit card, 1 miles per $10 earned,

"Nobody wants to pay for or be upgraded into a Comfort Plus middle seat, as it is inferior to a Main aisle and window seats. How can we monetize these seats and market it to idiots into thinking they are getting a deal?"

Delta has been beyond disappointing. Always finding ways to charge more without providing any value.

Shame on them. I hope people do NOT pay.

Sadly history is not on your side...

• Delta SimpliFares
• American More Room Throughout Coach
• BA J seat fees, followed by other carriers "unbundling" (eg: AFKL, etc)
• Pretty much everything jetBlue has done since David Neeleman left

I think we can safely call "Comfort Basic" by its other name: "Comfort+ Seat Fees".

I mean - I do think there is a legitimate market for this when it is priced below main cabin for non-statused customers. Especially those who might be a bit taller. I know I will break Flyertalk's brain here but all else being equal (full plane) I prefer a middle seat with 34" of pitch than a window seat (especially in a 737). 30-31" aisle vs. 34" C+ can be a bit of a tougher call since you can angle your legs out into the aisle a bit.

I don't drink much on planes, but C+ comes with free drinks. You still get early boarding so your carry-on will probably not get gate checked. You still get MQDs. You still get some revenue miles. You still get lounge access if you have a card. If you know your travel plans won't change, losing free changes isn't a big deal.

Now, as soon as Basic Comfort costs more than Main Cabin then it becomes a tougher sell. But at the price point positioned so far, I do see people buying it.




Not sure the data would prove that out. Basic Economy tickets are likely, on average, booked out further in advance than a main cabin ticket. For PM and DMs you'll likely find a bimodal distribution (leisure travel booked relatively far in advance, most business travel booked close in). Still, classic revenue management practice assumes that unrestricted tickets are sold closer in than restricted tickets, although I cannot find any industry literature that supports that in the modern Basic Economy world.

I do think this will be a point of annoyance for PM/DMs. You'll have to verify that C+ is actually available for sale rather than checking the seat map (technically you've always had to do this since a booking doesn't have to have a seat reservation, but it is so exceptionally rare that usually an open seat on the seat map = an upgrade).

Comfort Basic books into the same booking classes as Comfort Classic (W and S) and does not have separate booking class like Main Basic (E). So they can't directly limit Comfort Basic seats available for purchase vs. Comfort Classic. However, looking at the fare filings on EF on DCA-MIA, the Comfort Basic fares all have advance purchase requirements of 14, 21, or 30 days. This means you can no longer purchase Comfort Basic fares on flights once you are less than 14 days out from them.

Note that since there are two bands of Comfort class fares corresponding to W and S inventory, the Comfort Basic fares are only cheaper than Main Classic when S inventory is open on flights. If there is only W bucket open, you will be bumped into the pricier band of Comfort fares and Comfort Basic looks to be slightly pricier than the corresponding Main Classic fares in this case. While the S class Comfort Basic fares look to typically be $5 less each-way than Main Classic, the W class ones look to be $5 more than corresponding Main Classic fare (as shown below with V basis one-way Main and Comfort fares). Fares with a '1' in 7th position of fare basis code are S class Comfort Basic and those with a '2' are W class Comfort Basic.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...5754d51b7b.png
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...6132798d42.png

One of the dumbest product ideas I’ve seen in a long time. They should have called it “Basic Discomfort.”

No one would intentionally choose this product if they understood the value proposition. This is intended to extract dollars from infrequent ma & pa kettles looking for something special for their hard-earned vacation.

Kind of insulting, honestly.

Yeah I wonder if part of the consultants’ thinking is to create confusion with this.

The value proposition here is indeed quite odd. In particular I would have thought the person paying extra for a better seat would be quite interested in being able to pick that seat!

Anecdotally C+ already seems to have been selling quite well and the erosion of the PM benefit is well underway. On a number of flights this year booked reasonably far in advance C+ has been completely sold out or middle seats only, while exit rows were still available. I wonder if the consultants are actually modeling the impact on willingness to participate in the status rat race.

I am not so opposed to unbundling (which seems to be a bit of a bogeyman around here) and there especially seems nothing wrong with being able to choose restricted/changeable/refundable in any cabin. What they are doing with these Experiences however is constructing new and weird bundles of attributes that nobody ever asked to have put together.