United Airlines Basic Economy Fares – Full Details Announced & You’re Not Going To Like Them!

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United Airlines is holding an investor briefing as I type this and it has used the occasion to, amongst other things, announce details of its Basic Economy Fares.  This is an announcement frequent flyers have been anticipating for some time as we’ve been waiting to find out what benefits United will strip away from regular Economy Class fares to create this new fare offering. Now we know….and there are a few surprises.

United Airlines Basic Economy Fares

Basic Economy fares will go on sale in January 2017 for travel in the second quarter of 2017.

Here’s the slide that says it all (click to enlarge):

united-airlines-basic-economy

No Advanced Seat Selection

Just like British Airways has done with their basic fares there will be no advanced seat selection for those who purchase Basic Economy fares. This applies to those with elite status as well.

Not only will seats not be available for selection but passengers are stuck with whatever seat the airline gives them – no changes allowed.

No Flight Changes Allowed

Not exactly the most surprising announcement but, if you purchase a Basic Economy fare and then have to change your flight, you have to simply buy another ticket and write-off the cost of the original ticket.

No Boarding Priority

Passengers purchasing a Basic Economy fare will be in the last group to board – Group 5.

Importantly there’s a very small note on the slide that reads:

MileagePlus Premier members and certain credit card members will retain boarding priority

The lack of priority for Basic Economy fares is, again, unsurprising but the fact that elites and certain credit card holders will maintain their priority boarding benefit is actually very important…as the next point will show.

united-basic-economy

No Overhead Carry On Bags

This change was one I didn’t see coming.

Passengers purchasing Basic Economy fares will not be allowed to board with a carry-on that doesn’t fit underneath the seat in front of them and United has already figured out how to police this new rule.

Gate agents will not allow anyone in the last boarding group to board with a bag that will not fit under the seat in front of them and passengers will be expected to gate check any bags that don’t comply.

Because United’s elites will get to keep their boarding priority under these new rules they will also be allowed to board with an overhead bag.

Clearly United thought that removing boarding priority from elites would be a step too far and that policing elites with Basic Economy fares would be too arduous and time-consuming. I suspect the airline is right on both counts.

Still, that’s not the end of the pain for non-elites with Basic Economy fares…..

On top of all this, not only will Basic Economy passengers have to pay a checked-bag fee if they’re carry-on isn’t compliant, but they will also be charged a surcharge for having their bag gate-checked.

There will be no escape from these charges as, even if the airline offers free checked bags to those at the gate (this usually happens when the overhead bins are full or are expected to be full), Basic Economy passengers will not have the fees waived.

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No Upgrades

Another announcement that won’t surprise too many people – Basic Economy fares are not eligible for any kind of upgrade (complimentary or otherwise) regardless of passenger status.

No Elite Status Earnings

Basic Economy fares will continue to earn redeemable miles but will not earn Premier Qualifying Miles or Premier Qualifying Dollars.

No Economy Plus Seating For Elites

I must have missed this in the presentation but Gary (View From The Wing) has posted:

Elites will effectively has to start paying for economy plus, on routes where Basic Economy fares are being offered, in the form of a higher fare.

Will This Be What American Airlines Offers Too?

With United now being led by the one time President of American Airlines its inconceivable that it doesn’t have a very good idea what American is planning to do with its version of Basic Economy. The question is how closely does United feel it has to compete with American?

In eliminating elite earnings from Basic Economy United has shown that it doesn’t mind offering less than what Delta offers…but does it feel the same way about American?

I’m not sure that United would want to be the only one of the three legacy US airlines not to offer elite earnings on Basic Economy fares so there’s a good chance this is giving us an insight into what American plans to offer too.

That’s not good news.

Bottom Line

This is a mixture of things that were widely predicted and a few that I’m pretty sure most of us didn’t see coming.

No seat selection, no flight changes and no upgrades were obvious and expected parts of Basic Economy fares but the no overhead carry-on rule seems to have come out of nowhere!

United has said that it will follow Delta’s well-trodden path of being very clear, when customers are booking, what “Basic Economy” fares include and don’t include…but I have absolutely no doubt that the new restriction on carry-on bags will cause a lot of issues for quite some time.

On the earnings front I’m surprised that United has been so draconian as to eliminate elite mileage earning – that’s something that not even Delta eliminated! Considering how few redeemable miles are earned on Domestic Economy Class fares I don’t expect them to be much of a consolation to United Elites.

There aren’t exactly any positives I can think of to take away from what was announced today – the benefits most of us expected to see withdraw were withdrawn but there were other hits too…..now we just have to wait and see how United prices these fares and what effect they will have on the cost of regular economy fares.