Last edit by: WineCountryUA
Related thread: Basic Economy Airport and Plane Experiences (First or Second Hand)
If purchased on united.com you will have to accept a warning about choosing Basic Economy and there will be orange "Basic Economy" highlights everywhere during the booking process.
Link to UA's description of how these fares will work: Basic Economy.
Here are the key facts:
To avoid domestic BE fares ITA Matrix ~bc=N . Ignoring them on international flights is much trickier because they do not have a consistent pattern in the fare basis; it appears to change by market / region. (That said, as UA is lifting BE from legacy GDS systems, it may result in them disappearing from ITA Matrix anyway).
Google Flights -- select 1 Carry-on bag
NO UNUSED TICKET MAY BE USED TOWARD THE PURCHASE
OF A BASIC ECONOMY TICKET.
-------
NO RESIDUAL VALUE MAY BE USED TOWARD THE PURCHASE
OF A BASIC ECONOMY TICKET.
How is this different from buying up BE to regular economy?
related threads
New UA/*A TATL -LGT Economy fare - no free first bag, no changes/upgrades allowed
Benefit impact of restricted economy fares on UA Elites (Basic Econ, -LGT, Light Econ
Pre-announcement speculation thread (now closed) New "Budget Economy" fares
United's Basic Economy - Discussion, Q&A, ... {Archive}
If purchased on united.com you will have to accept a warning about choosing Basic Economy and there will be orange "Basic Economy" highlights everywhere during the booking process.
Link to UA's description of how these fares will work: Basic Economy.
Here are the key facts:
- No free seat assignments until check-in. Seats will be assigned by the system. Flyers (including elite) have the option to purchase regular economy and preferred economy (white seats with black triangle on seat map) seats after ticket purchase. E+ seats are not available for purchase until check-in. If you don’t purchase an advance seat assignment, your seat will be automatically assigned to you prior to boarding, and you won't be able to change your seat once it's been assigned.
- No guarantee of adjacent seats with companions
- No voluntary ticket changes after 24 hour purchase period including SDC (occasionally 1K's have successfully used Same Day Standby and received a confirmed seat without penalty)
- Carry on limited to one personal item unless the customer is a MP Premier member, primary cardmember of a qualifying MileagePlus credit card, or Star Alliance *G, or traveling on an international BE product
- Customers ineligible for carry-on who bring one to the gate will be charged a $25 convenience fee to gate-check in addition to standard baggage fees (source: @united twitter)
- Customers are not eligible for premium cabin upgrades either via CPU, mileage upgrade award or PlusPoints
- Customers will board in the last boarding group (currently Group 5) unless the customer is a MP Premier member, primary cardmember of a qualifying MileagePlus credit card, or Star Alliance *G, or traveling on an international BE product
- Companions on same PNR will have same boarding group and carry-on if one on the PNR has a waiver
- No combinability with regular economy fares or partner carriers. Interline travel is not permitted.
- Normal PQPs / RDMs based on fare and elite multipliers
- No PQFs
- Flight(s) do count towards the 4 flight minimum for UA-operated
- Full Lifetime mileage
- Domestic Basic Economy tickets will use booking code 'N'. International BE can be in any class.
- Online check-in only with paid checked bag, otherwise need to see a United representative to verify the onboard bag allowance and receive a boarding pass
- Canceling a basic economy ticket will receive a flight credit for the price of the ticket, minus a fee. For domestic flights, the fee is $49.50 for one-way tickets and $99 for roundtrip tickets. For international flights, the fee is $99.50 for one-way tickets and $199 for roundtrip tickets
To avoid domestic BE fares ITA Matrix ~bc=N . Ignoring them on international flights is much trickier because they do not have a consistent pattern in the fare basis; it appears to change by market / region. (That said, as UA is lifting BE from legacy GDS systems, it may result in them disappearing from ITA Matrix anyway).
Google Flights -- select 1 Carry-on bag
NO UNUSED TICKET MAY BE USED TOWARD THE PURCHASE
OF A BASIC ECONOMY TICKET.
-------
NO RESIDUAL VALUE MAY BE USED TOWARD THE PURCHASE
OF A BASIC ECONOMY TICKET.
How is this different from buying up BE to regular economy?
related threads
New UA/*A TATL -LGT Economy fare - no free first bag, no changes/upgrades allowed
Benefit impact of restricted economy fares on UA Elites (Basic Econ, -LGT, Light Econ
Pre-announcement speculation thread (now closed) New "Budget Economy" fares
United's Basic Economy - Discussion, Q&A, ... {Archive}
United's Basic Economy - Discussion, Q&A, ...Now cancellable for a fee
#451
Join Date: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,746
Is Seat Selection Allowed During OLCI for Basic Economy Fare?
Advising a friend on whether she should buy a BE ticket for a last minute family emergency trip to he UK. She is looking to fly less than 24 hours from now, so there is no point in her buying a non BE fare if she will get to select a seat immediately after booking through OLCI.
#452
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Los Angeles, California
Programs: United, American, Delta, Hyatt, Hilton, Hertz, Marriott
Posts: 14,802
Advising a friend on whether she should buy a BE ticket for a last minute family emergency trip to he UK. She is looking to fly less than 24 hours from now, so there is no point in her buying a non BE fare if she will get to select a seat immediately after booking through OLCI.
United states that there is no seat selection for BE.
#453
Moderator: Travel Safety/Security, Travel Tools, California, Los Angeles; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: LAX
Programs: oneword Emerald
Posts: 20,639
#454
Join Date: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,746
You are unfortunately correct re seat assignment, this says that United will assign the seat for you: https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/tra...c-economy.html
This does vary from airline to airline, I know from experience that both Virgin Atlantic and KLM allow seat selection by the passenger at OLCI time.
UPDATE: As a test I started the booking dialog for the flight that was less than 24 hours away, and then the flight that is more than 24 hours away.
For the flight that was less than 24 hours away, it offered me seats for free. For the flight that was more than 24 hours away (27 hours actually), it wanted to charge me for seats.
Last edited by BigFlyer; Mar 1, 2024 at 2:20 pm
#456
Moderator: United Airlines
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Plat 1.995MM, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott Plat/LT Gold, Hilton Silver, IHG Plat
Posts: 66,857
UA Silver get 1 bag allowance if checking in with UA, non-UA *S do not on UA and UA *s will not on most other carriers.
#457
BE with Chase UA Quest
TL;DR: I see chatter about needing to pay with the Chase credit card to access baggage and priority benefits. Is this true?
Booking 4pax (2 minors) OW SJC-ORD-ROC (BE Fare)
No status, but I have the Chase Quest card (2x bags for 2 pax on PNR)
I would like to pay the entire flight with TravelBank, but I am unofficially reading I need to use the Quest Card to access the baggage and boarding benefits?
A. Can I pay a small portion of the BE fare on the Quest card to guarantee my benefits?
B. Will my minors (under 10yrs old) get seated with me at a minimum?
Per link above:
Booking 4pax (2 minors) OW SJC-ORD-ROC (BE Fare)
No status, but I have the Chase Quest card (2x bags for 2 pax on PNR)
I would like to pay the entire flight with TravelBank, but I am unofficially reading I need to use the Quest Card to access the baggage and boarding benefits?
A. Can I pay a small portion of the BE fare on the Quest card to guarantee my benefits?
B. Will my minors (under 10yrs old) get seated with me at a minimum?
Per link above:
Families with children under 12 can book Economy and Basic Economy seats next to each other for free. Sometimes, seat assignments change because of last minute bookings or unscheduled aircraft changes. If this happens on your flight and your family is separated, you can switch to another flight with availability in the same cabin for free. We won't charge you for any fare differences.
Last edited by AMRivlin; Mar 5, 2024 at 12:28 pm
#458
Join Date: May 2017
Posts: 2,280
TL;DR: I see chatter about needing to pay with the Chase credit card to access baggage and priority benefits. Is this true?
Booking 4pax (2 minors) OW SJC-ORD-ROC (BE Fare)
No status, but I have the Chase Quest card (2x bags for 2 pax on PNR)
I would like to pay the entire flight with TravelBank, but I am unofficially reading I need to use the Quest Card to access the baggage and boarding benefits?
A. Can I pay a small portion of the BE fare on the Quest card to guarantee my benefits?
B. Will my minors (under 10yrs old) get seated with me at a minimum?
Per link above:
Booking 4pax (2 minors) OW SJC-ORD-ROC (BE Fare)
No status, but I have the Chase Quest card (2x bags for 2 pax on PNR)
I would like to pay the entire flight with TravelBank, but I am unofficially reading I need to use the Quest Card to access the baggage and boarding benefits?
A. Can I pay a small portion of the BE fare on the Quest card to guarantee my benefits?
B. Will my minors (under 10yrs old) get seated with me at a minimum?
Per link above:
b) Their family seat policy will make sure each child under 12 is in an adjacent seat to at least one adult in the PNR.
#460
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Lone Tree, CO
Programs: United Mileage Plus, BA Executive Club, Hyatt Gold Passport
Posts: 744
I have tickets booked in Basic Economy for DEN-LHR. I am considering paying to upgrade to Economy and then rebooking our return out of CDG. It would make the trip more expensive but more efficient (since we would only need a one way from London to Paris on Eurostar). It would cost me $300 per person to upgrade to Economy. If I did that, would the additional $300 become part of the ticket value, or is it like a change fee, where the ticket value would remain what I initially paid?
#461
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: SFO/SJC
Programs: UA Silver, Marriott Gold, Hilton Gold
Posts: 14,890
I have tickets booked in Basic Economy for DEN-LHR. I am considering paying to upgrade to Economy and then rebooking our return out of CDG. It would make the trip more expensive but more efficient (since we would only need a one way from London to Paris on Eurostar). It would cost me $300 per person to upgrade to Economy. If I did that, would the additional $300 become part of the ticket value, or is it like a change fee, where the ticket value would remain what I initially paid?
#462
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Lone Tree, CO
Programs: United Mileage Plus, BA Executive Club, Hyatt Gold Passport
Posts: 744
#463
Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 46
I noticed something odd when I am booking an UA, in my case a one-way LIR-IAH-ORD-YYZ. When I book Basic Economy and use the United Canada site (charged in CAD$), and I enter my AC aeroplan number (no elite status, just a mid tier cc, which should not have such benefit not even for AC), I have free standard seat selection on all my routes. but if I go to the United USA site (with all same parameters), then I am charged for seat selection. Is this a bug or some agreement between UA and AC? I just tried it again with a dummy booking.
#464
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2017
Programs: AS 75K, DL Silver, UA Platinum, Hilton Gold, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott Platinum + LT Gold
Posts: 10,514
Got a seat 3 days before the flight, may have been even longer than 3 days, didn't check until just now.
Hey, I got assigned a seat in the last row. Now I will get to hang out with the cool kids and chill FA, or I will have the entire row to myself.
This BE stuff ain't too bad.
Hey, I got assigned a seat in the last row. Now I will get to hang out with the cool kids and chill FA, or I will have the entire row to myself.
This BE stuff ain't too bad.