United's Basic Economy - Discussion, Q&A, ... {Archive}
 

Hi everyone,

Today we announced our newest offering, Basic Economy, which will give customers more options when it comes to their travel needs. Basic Economy will also help to speed up the boarding process so our customers can get to where they need to be on time.

While there are some differences to the Basic Economy fare, customers will enjoy the same United Economy cabin experience and services, dining options, Wi-Fi and inflight entertainment options. Available for sale this January, customers will be able to book Basic Economy fares for spring travel.

We will continue to offer a spectrum of products, from Basic Economy to standard economy to Economy Plus, as well as premium cabin experiences in United First and United Polaris.

Watch the video at United Hub to hear more about Basic Economy from our CEO, Oscar Munoz.

Thank you,

-UA Insider

Should we start flying real LCCs?

Fare classes?
 

What fare classes would fall under basic economy? And would applying an upgrade move you to business or regular economy?

From the provided link:

Customers will not be eligible for Economy Plus or premium cabin upgrades.

"Customers will not be eligible for Economy Plus or premium cabin upgrades."


Is anyone else seeing this offered on any routes yet? Is it only domestic?

Are boarding passes going to be flagged somehow or will the machine beep to make gate agents check and enforce the carry on limit?

Generally at how much of a discount from regular economy will Basic Economy be priced?

Is the basic economy fare the lowest fare that will be shown in search engines now?

wow, this sounds horrid. so a GS could be in economy minus on a basic fare and earn no pqm, no seat assignment. yowza.

No PQMs, Boarding Group 5 (unless you have status or CC), seats not together if multiperson itinerary, no upgrade, no E+.

Wonder what will happen if only E+ seats remain.

I hate that Basic Economy exists but on the face of it, it seems to be exactly what you'd expect, no better, no worse

I'm curious at how well they will enforce this:

So during the boarding process, the machine will beep for Basic Economy pax? Would be kinda embarrassing IMO if it does.

Maybe Group 5 will be only basic economy pax?

They just need to check group 5, because those pax with status and cc will boarding from group 1 and 2....

Only if the GS books that ticket.

I can't really object to the offering, assuming not everything moves this way.

But no lifetime miles? That just seems low . . . fine with no PQMs etc. But lifetime given all the other limits seems like something they could throw in. If someone flies 1mm miles on basic economy they definitely deserve lifetime gold status . . .

They said currently group 5, so probably they will make a group 6 or whatever..

Still would be embarrassing IMO (even though most people in that line might not know what the beeping would be about).

+1. I would think lifetime would atleast count but they don't even honor that here.

I think "N" will be the one used as Basic Economy... because "N" did not exist for a while (all United's deal, including lowest price like $49 BOS-EWR, were booked in G)

+1... at least lifetime miles...

When will it start?? does the united.com/app will show up a "warning"?

Unpopular opinion, I'm sure, but lifetime million-miler benefits have to make the least business sense of any of the elite perks, because younger fliers have far more travel ahead of them.

To avoid derailing too much: that is just to say, no way these fares will earn lifetime miles.

If anyone is flying 1 million miles, presumably majority business travel, they should not be booking fares like this for their own sanity and physical well being.

Curious to see if this will be designated a certain way/ if employers with a "Lowest Available Fare" policy will differentiate. This could have a major impact for business travelers that are at the mercy of corporate policy.

My worst nightmare! And I was just waiting for this to happen. The no million miler credit is a disappointment, you are still traveling with a paid ticket!

Not that it wasn't obviously coming, but still sad to see it here. This is going to be horrible for coach flyers. I guess this is the little kick I needed to spread my flying around.

The lifetime mile part does seem harsh.

This new pricing structure is simply going to chip away at brand loyalty. Why worry about airlines miles at all? Shop based on schedule and price first.

Is it standard under these policies for some that one would have to prove they picked the lowest fare?

Lets hope so. It looks like you can't cancel or change the ticket, so then the question will be if the tickets are so cheap that it is more economical to just book a bunch of these flights and cancel them or pay the change fee. Even more luck explaining it to the stooges in HR.

My company has some wiggle room. However, we're expected to take the lowest fare offered on a particular flight. If the search engine returns BE fares, I would have the option of selecting a flight where no BE seats were available, but I wouldn't have the option of selecting a non-BE fare on a flight where BE exists.

However, the N fare bucket has seemingly been tracking with Y... If they apply a differential N fare rule to every bucket -- the way they do for the UPDI fares -- this could pose a real problem.

UA Insider I think there is an immediate need for a chart similar to premier benefits chart describing the premier benefits on these fares.

I am really curios about this as well. United does not have a great history of enforcing carry on policies. And VERY VERY few casual travelers will understand the difference between a regular carry-on bag and a personal item.

I envision a big cluster at boarding if they enforce this.

You do understand that, at least in large companies, HR has absolutely nothing to do with setting travel policies, right? :confused:

Regards

.

Agreed, unfortunately with corporate contracts, many won't have a choice. I see a lot of these in my future if I continue with my current job. Without PQM's, I don't know how I would maintain status after a year, meaning I fly maybe 60k-70k miles on UA and still have to sit in E-, and can't even reserve a seat. Plus, as a business traveler, I can bring my laptop but have to check my roller board for every flight?

If I lose status and have to sit in E-, I see no reason to be loyal to UA. I certainly will move my personal travel. I have DL as a secondary option at work, but I haven't paid attention to whether they've introduced a similar LCC service.

I'm fairly certain it will be at my 60k employee company.

I don't know how many here can answer to what's standard. What I'll share is from my experience and what I've heard from others (I work with a lot of Fortune 100 companies). It seems that lowest reasonable fare is pretty typical, meaning you aren't forced to take some crazy routing that requires 6 hours instead of a 2 hour nonstop flight. Also, corporate contracts can trump lowest fare. At my company, we're required to book UA or DL first. The system flags anything outside the policy and asks for a reason.

Managers also have to approve flights outside the policy or over a price threshold. I have never pushed the limits and my manager, who also travels a lot, has never questioned anything. But that would change if she were ordered to do so.

I've never been asked for proof of anything, but I do know people have been questioned if they have a pattern or trend of exceptions, which I assume is identified by the number of times they get flagged and have to select a reason for going outside policy.

The bigger issue for me is that if this is driven by fare code, I have no way around it other than to select different flights that don't have the "Basic" fare code. The system only displays the lowest fare code for each flight it returns.

That is wishful thinking. I have a feeling Basic Economy will be priced the same as the lowest fare now and regular economy will be have a premium above that.

My question is are Saver Awards going to place on into basic economy?

Of course not . . . but I look at lifetime miles as one of those super-diffuse benefits that really matters to very few people but also has an extremely low cost to the company other than recognizing someone has been flying with the airline for years and years and a lot of miles. It's a cheap "give" to credit lifetime miles for even the cheapest of tickets. And for that matter for award tickets as well. it's not just a lifetime PQM (as the conversion after merger with pmCO showed).

I work for a large multinational company, and I imagine our travel policy is fairly standard. When Delta unveiled its version of basic economy, our booking portal defaulted away from such fares and instead went to regular economy. I'd expect this to be the same.

In case anyone was wondering, from the investor presentation:

Basic Economy will be on sale in early 1Q17 for travel in 2Q17

Boarding Group 5 (unless you otherwise 'earn' a higher group)?

So, UA uses a WilMA method to 'save time' in boarding (it is one of the most efficient boarding methods). So, they scrap that for the sake of selling cheap fares? How is this supposed to make things 'faster', as they tout?

So, surely an anomaly, but assume there are 5 seats remaining when they clear Economy Basic people into their seats. So, all of those aisle people and possibly middles now have to get out of their seats and bottleneck things worse than the standard practice?

I have a feeling this will be one of the first 'anti-benefits' to be rescinded.

Well, if so it will also have a negative impact on UA loyalty. If your company requires use of these tickets why will anyone make an effort to fly UA when presented with a choice of similar costing alternatives?

I haven't read the entire thread, but I'd guess leisure markets more than most as it did say it would be market specific. Similar to Ted. But then again, commuter markets, where carry ons are at maximum could benefit the most from it...

I work for a large multinational, when the DL Basic Economy fares were introduced, they showed up for a couple of weeks but haven't shown up in a while. In fact policy went the other way and we are given access to "Preferred Seats" and put on the C+/F upgrade list as part of our corporate contract now.

We are on a "lowest available fare" but perhaps they got enough pushback that they removed Basic Economy or DL removed it as part of the latest corporate contract and replaced it with the access mentioned above. For UA in particular it would be silly since the company policy is to pay for checked baggage which you would have to do if limited to 1 carry-on and would more or less cancel out the lower price.

It is remarkable that people ask a question about a product which is very clearly described as to what it does and does not provide, when it will be bookable and as of what date. What is not known is at what fare.

It is also remarkable that people are prepared to bash a product which UA reasonably believes that it can sell, presumably based on market research showing a market.

Nobody is forced to buy the product, by UA, and it is likely a terrible deal (depending on pricing) for most business travel. That is why most businesses which required "lowest" quite quickly exempted this product from their DL requirement when DL offered it. If your employer requires you to purchase the product and it makes poor business sense, that is a discussion with your employer.

So, why a poor business traveler decision: 1. Inflexible. This means no changes. Not only no SDC, but no changes of any kind. Not even for $200 (Domestic) + fare difference. Thus, if your business meeting is cancelled, the ticket goes in the trash. 2. Luggage - No overnight bag means checked luggage means $25 for even a one-night trip or $50 round-trip. That may wipe out the ticket savings right there. True that #2 goes away for employees with any status and Silver is not hard to attain, but inflexibility is a big deal for most businesses and paying an employee to sit at a gate for 3 hours waiting for the next flight rather than even an SDC fee is a waste.

As to the carry-on issue, this is a good way to solve the largest hassle of boarding. There simply is not enough space to acommodate the compliant carry-ons of all passengers. Tight connections means lots of people who might have boarded early are boarding late. At least those in the cheap seats won't be taking up the OH's on full flights.

As to E+, even those who don't qualify for E+ seating, are assigned E+ if that is all that is left. But, think of it as rare if even non Basic customers who are not E+ eligible and did not pay for it come ahead of you. I don't see UA IDB someone over that.

"Basic Economy" doesn't do it justice. How about "Steerage"?

No PQM, PQD, PQS for basic economy? If this is a significant amount of fares, there really is no point to loyalty.