IME, it shows the combined number of free bags for all Pax. At least that is what seems to make sense to me for the numbers I see in my itineraries.


there is a star next to basic economy, and part of the footnote says this:

for domestic, BE books into N class. For international, it can be various classes, and BE fares are notated by part of the fare basis code. I still think United erred and causes confusion by using the same marketing for fares that have different benefits if flying domestic vs. international. But then again, LH group, etc. has other fares that are called ‘economy basic’ that also aren’t ‘basic economy’, so you have to be very careful to see what you are getting.

It DOES NOT say that

but it does say
UA kept it simple for domestic but LH and AC had all ready adopted the multiple fare class appraoch and UA needed to algine with them

waitlisted segments also add bags, but best to discuss this in the referenced thread -- not really a BE issue.

It absolutely does say that a K fare is not Basic Eco. How do you explain this?

Premier qualifying miles (PQM) | Premier qualifying segments (PQS)
Basic Economy 50% | 0.5

K Fare 100% | 1

Except when it is Basic Economy as it also says
Not sure why the pushback on what the reality is. It is stated eslewhere also and covered in this thread.

Is it confusing, yes but is it documented, yes. It is what it is.

The pushback is on UA publishing inaccurate documentation. Did you also notice that it displays how many PQM's you earn in the post 2019 era? Do you think that is accurate documentation? Didn't UA move away from PQM's 3 years ago? If you want to just say United.com is not accurate and that is what it is, I would just say one should never accept inaccuracy from ones vendors. Especially one where professionalism is so very important.

But thanks, I do get the reality and now know not to accept united.com as an accurate source of information.

Suspect you found a zombie page - an expired link -- via a "google" search. It had the right information for want you were querying -- can K be Basic Economy, which it can for some cases, such as TATL, but it had the older elite earning information. It is always a risk with a browser search to get a zombie page -- UA should delete that old page but UA is far from the on organization with this issue.

If you go to UA.com and follow the links on earning miles from flights, you get the present day version on the zombie page
https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly...es/united.html

Which has footnote 5
and present day status earning rules

Hi all, I have a BE booking for 3 adults.
Website says:
Complimentary seat selection is not available
Group and family seating is not available

Does this mean all 3 of us will get random seats like ryanair?
If yes, can we still after random seats have been assigned, change and buy seats to sit together?
Or can we request this at the gate?

Thanks in advance.

Well, if you bought the tickets from UA's website, you had to click the following to purchase them:

So, yes, y'all will get random seats like Ryanair.

Here are the key facts:

• When purchasing a Basic Economy ticket, you will not receive a complimentary seat assignment but may be able to purchase advance seat assignments during booking and up until check-in opens. 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

David

Well I booked via brussels airlines.
it's a long haul flight bru ewr.

But after random seat assignment can you still buy seats or arrange something at the gate?

we are flying today and I have had to deal with this piece of trash BE for weeks, flying to Venice Italy, we were booked economy class last year then UA cancels segments and rebooks us as BE. after 10 plus phone conversations and emails it was never sorted and now I'm paying 400 usd extra for baggage and seats for US. Trust me unless congress does something about how bad we are treated, The US public will continue to be the bottom of world Airline service.

I absolutely hate UA.

I don’t know that UAs policy is specifically to give BE pax traveling on same PNR random seats in different areas of the plane, however, given no free seat selection, and the fact that these seats seem to be assigned by UA at check in or maybe shortly before, it’s possible there are not 3 seats together at time your seats are allocated. The disclaimer is there because the seating is allocated based on what is available at the time, and many pax will have selected seats (for free) prior - so there may or may not be seats available together. I would not personally by BE when traveling with family (and probably not even when traveling alone), but if you do, and you want seats together, might be best to pay for the seat selection. If there is one thing that is pretty much guaranteed, save for a last minute swap to a larger aircraft, or something that incentivizes others to switch to different flight (ie, long delay), it’s that availability now (however long it is before your flight) is going to be better than at the time seats will be allocated for you.

UA (AFAIK), is not like some other carriers that will allocate minors and parents on a booking without free advance seat assignments. Airlines might take a tack like making sure a minor is sitting with at least one of the adults (ie, AC - but you don’t get to pick - they do), or BA, which will allocate seats a few days before departure to ensure that a minor is with 1 adult.

im not sure what happened in your instance, but UA should not be, and probably can not, rebook you in BE. There is supposed to be a ‘gate’ between BE and non-BE, so to speak. For example, if you decide you want to change flights, and are on a regular fare, you can not change that PNR to BE. You also cannot change a BE ticket, even after an invol cancelation to a regular fare.

id call and find out what is going on. Maybe you were on a BE fare when you booked and didn’t realize it. If you booked via Brussels, I beleive ‘light’ fares are the equivalent of BE, so maybe that’s what was originally booked?

Hi there,

I made the huge mistake of buying a BE fare with United for a trip from the US to Europe. Due to some family matters, I'm considering changing the trip to later this year but trying not to lose hundreds of dollars.

I know this is part of the game, and that's why those tickets are cheaper, but is there any workaround to avoid this "use it or lose it" situation?

I heard of cases where people can upgrade the ticket to economy before changing it, but apparently it only works for domestic flights.

Any tips are appreciated. Thanks!

How far away are you from the date of travel? Maybe a schedule change would help

Probably a whole bunch. Or even a cancellation or two.

David

that’s correct, AFAIK. ‘Upgrading’ for regular economy features (which apparently doesn’t actually change the ticket to regular Y, or so I was told in another thread) is only available for domestic BE, not for international.

Again, as I’ve mentioned umpteen times, the marketing of BE for both domestic and international fares that have different features is pretty confusing.