When American Airlines introduced Basic Economy fares — new restrictions on the cheapest tickets that prevented customers from upgrading, making itinerary changes, or even getting a seat assignment at booking — they offered the ability to ‘buy up’ to the regular economy fare.
That way if someone realized they had purchased such a restrictive fare in error, they still had a do-over possibility by giving the airline more money.
This was of course the biggest deal when American first rolled out the fares and didn’t allow Basic Economy customers to bring a carry on bag on the plane (just a personal item). American walked back that policy in the fall,
- They realized it made them uncompetitive. Delta’s basic economy fares didn’t have a carry on bag restriction. That mean Delta was offering a better product, and indeed that American was more expensive for customers who wanted to bring a carry on bag onto the plane.
- Not only was American losing ticket sales, they were delaying the boarding process when Basic Economy customers showed up with a carry on bag. For an airline whose on-time performance was suffering, this own-goal made no sense.
Now that the carry on restriction is gone, so too is the ability to buy out of Basic Economy. (Customers can, of course, still cancel for a free refund within 24 hours of booking most of the time.)
American tells me that the people who were using the ability to buy up into another fare were largely doing so to retain value from their tickets when they needed to change plans on a basic economy fare.
- Basic economy fares are non-refundable and non-changeable. You take your flight or you lose all value in the ticket.
- However if you ‘bought up’ to a higher fare, that fare would be changeable. It was a way to change supposedly non-changeable basic economy tickets.
According to a spokesperson “while there are not a huge number of people taking advantage of this previous policy, the ones who are, are generally using it in a way it wasn’t intended.”
This policy change to no longer allow buy ups on basic economy fares applies to short haul markets only. Transatlantic basic economy fares are still changeable with a fee to begin with.
And American’s basic economy fares remain far less bad than United’s, since United:
- Remains the only US airline which will not allow a carry on bag on their cheapest fares
- And will not allow basic economy customers who aren’t checking a bag to check in online or via app. Basic economy customers are required to show up at the airport earlier in order to stand in line to check in.
While I wish American’s goal here (and more generally) wasn’t to be ‘not as bad as United’ that’s still something I suppose.
Gary
I don’t understand
wasn’t the whole purpose of basic economy to force people to pay more to buy up?
if they remove that option then what is the pint of having basic economy? just to provide the worst possible experience?
I am just curious, I went from flying 100k miles a year with AA for 10 years, to not flying them even once in the last two…
Thank you , Mr. Gary. “while there are not a huge number of people taking advantage of this previous policy, the ones who are, are generally using it in a way it wasn’t intended.” This is the exact nonsense that underpins most enhancements and vilifies any passenger/ff member who legitimately avail themselves of published rules. Undoubtedly, the worm will one (1) day turn. That period of cyclicality during which these RM clowns will beg for our business can’t come soon enough.
Hmmmm. They paid a change fee of $200 on a $150. Ok
Whatever America.
@Doug
The scenario is this: you buy a completely non-changeable, non-refundable BE ticket. Remember these are intended to be use it or lose it. A week later your plans change, so your only option should be eating the old ticket and buying a new one. Instead, you previously could buy up to regular economy by paying the small difference in fares and now you’re subject to those fare rules (changeable with fee + fare difference).
What’s silly is that this should be solvable with tech. Just as when you buy up from a non-refundable to a refundable fare, the non-refundable portion of the fare remains that way. It should be just as easy to not allow any of the previous BE fare to apply to a new ticket, thus still allowing people to upgrade without the change loophole. But yes, that would require AA to invest in something beyond the sad tech infrastructure they currently have. Much easier to sock it to the customer.
@Darin — You’re sharper than the average poster here, but I think you’re wrong about how easy it would be to make a portion of a refundable ticket non refundable. I don’t think that’s easy at all in Airline World.
The reality of the situation was that AA wasn’t making much money selling buy-ups (unless you were completely ignorant when you bought the ticket, why would you change your mind to buy up?) but was losing some money with people gaming the system by transitioning to a refundable ticket before cancelling. The brilliant commenters here always think AA management are idiots, but there solution seems ridiculously logical.
@chopsticks
for someone who thinks they are smarter than everybody else you have a poor spelling ability..(check your post)
the only reason to read this blog is to always comment with your two cents about how drunk parker is a genius…who knows? maybe you ARE him…
This is another needless way for AA to disenfranchise and to enrage their customers. They now won’t let a customer pay to have a fare increase? What if (as in many cases) the fare was bought for someone else by a customer/travel office who simply didn’t understand AA’s fare system?
What is behind AA’s “race to the bottom” as far as any consideration for their customers is concerned? From a consumer’s perspective, the hits keep on coming from AA – their mileage awards have been devalued, most all benefits of flying with AA have decreased while their fares have increased, and they’ve even managed to ensure that their co-branded credit cards are losing their value. It’s as if their competition took control of the company and is trying to make it go bankrupt.
Dear AA: I want to give you some money to buy an airplane fare.
Dear AA: I want to give you some more money to ‘buy up’ to regular economy.
Dear AA: I want to give you $200 more to change my ticket.
Dear Customer: No thanks. Screw you.
Dear Southwest: Oh, I can buy a ‘wanna get away’ fare AND change it AND not pay a fee?
If you change your ticket, don’t you have to pay the difference in fare? What’s the harm?
Do I *need* another reason NOT to fly on American? (Not that I have *ever* purchased a fare in BE — I haven’t — nor do I ever plan on doing so, but still…) Every time I think AA cannot possibly screw things up worse than they already are, they have a way of proving me wrong once again.
There’s a big elephant here that isn’t being addressed – very often tickets are bought on someone else’s behalf: By an employer or client.
These buyer tend to be ignorant and or cheapskates and can inadvertently screw people with BE tickets. This happened to me with a Delta ticket and I called up Delta (within the 24 hour purchase) window and they happily took my money and I never had to bother my employer with whining about it, though it sucked to spend the money.
I’m shocked that AA wouldn’t allow the same – at least within the initial 24 hour window. Anyone know if there’s still wiggle room there?