usfly

Hello,

I have Basic Economy on a roundtrip itinerary in a few months with one other person on the PNR. I am *G, my travel companion is not. I just learned that I will not be flying back on the return leg, while my travel companion will be. (We will both be on the outbound.)

(a) Given that BE is nonrefundable, is there any reason why I would cancel my leg of the ticket?
(b) Will my travel companion still be in Boarding Group 2 (to get the free carry-on) if we both check in, but I don't take the flight? Would this cause any problems at the gate if one person on the itinerary doesn't travel?

Thank you.

getagb

It might help your flight take off on time (which would benefit your travel companion).

Your companion will still be in BG2, and can be on the plane well before anyone notices you aren't there. It's technically possible they would track your companion down and force the bag to be checked, but given the focus on D0 I doubt anyone will. The GA might ask your companion where you are, though.

If your companion can contact you after boarding, you could cancel once they're seated.

emcampbe

I always think cancelling (or at least not checking in) is the right thing to do, but Doubtful this will affect whether the flight is on time either way.

If the pax doesn't check in by the cutoff, the ticket will be canceled immediately at that point. Even if OP does check in, when they are not onboard at the boarding cutoff, 15 minutes prior to departure time, they'll be offloaded. Either their place will be filled by a standby, will go out empty, or any overbooking will be less one than before. Either way, the 15 minutes is still plenty of time for UA to do what they need to get the flight out on time.

Kacee

No showing will not affect the flight's departure status. As noted already, the reservation will be canceled upon the failure to check-in.

PaulInTheSky

1. Doubt they would ever do that for INTL, which put them into a very difficult position.

2. N inventories are there, but it's not bookable in Basic Economy. Good job to not allow people to book it in .bomb. However, it's not zeroed out either.

It is possible that later there will be rebookings directly into N where people will get mad at UA charging carry-ons for INTL flights like AA did.

Kacee

They are coming. Already announced for Latin America, and it's not going to stop there.

PaulInTheSky

So all the narrow-bodies here, and HI. I would like to see the face of the customers when they get charged for their carry-on in ULH like EWR-HKGs or something. Let's see if US3 have the nerve to do that.

It's all about capacity control and greed. IMO Latin America is borderline acceptable, but Hawaii, really? Come on now.

xliioper

DL sells Basic Economy on ATL-JNB. But then DL BE fares do not have carry-on restrictions (nor does it alter your checked luggage allowances).

1353513636

DL's BE is no different than non BE fares on competing European carriers, they don't offer seat selection and changes net a refund of only the taxes and fees.

JohnnyP

Sad state of affairs with BE -- like others have started to book away from United. What's the point anymore? For the first time ever in Google Flights today, I filtered out United (along with Frontier and Spirit) for my search. It's VX, AS, WN, B6 and DL (on non-BE routes) for me these days.

I guess when they say they want to compete with Frontier and Spirit, they've succeeded. :-/

emcampbe

not sure what routes on DL are "non-BE" - didn't they already announce it's available on all domestic routes and will be coming international (I know for sure they have them to Canada, which UA does not at this point, not sure about DL on long-haul, but upthread someone posted it is available on ATL-JNB. yes, DL doesn't offer it when the higher fare classes only are available, but they should be available on all domestic routes.

These will become more more common on AA as well as they roll it more broadly. given your restriction to these few carriers, good luck getting where you need to go outside of most of the largest US cities. Try booking WN to LHR, or VX/AS to mid-size cities in the Midwest, and tell me how that works out for you. BE fares are available to those who want them, but easy to avoid them if you just select a regular fare, and just an expansion of the same type of basic fare options that have been available in other regions, some of which have been around for 15+ years (AC Tango, LH lite fares, etc.) and doesn't even include the fares on carriers like OZ, TG and SQ which just receive no mileage. If BE doesn't meet your needs, then by all means, book a different fare or a different carrier if you think that's better for you. For me, I'd rather consolidate my mileage on UA/*A since I get benefits I couldn't get by splitting my travel on multiple carriers - forget about CPUs, but given the savings I've had on bag fees alone, much less other items, more than makes up for the times I've had to pay higher fares. It's not even close. For sure, you should do what meets your needs best.

DELee

What UACO calls its BE product is not the same as DL BE. Comparing what United Continental offers to Delta's product is not equivalent.

David

Kacee

+100
Not only is UA's product much worse, but the fare structure is also far more objectionable than DL's.

fly18725

There continue to be tweaks to the fare structure and we shouldn't get too hung up on it.

JBord

It seems, to me, to be perfectly acceptable to get hung up on it until we see some changes. Especially with an airline that has a history, albeit with the prior CEO, of making bad things worse with its tweaks.

I still don't quite understand why it causes people to book away though, unless they are now consistently seeing lower fares in DL or AA.