American Airlines has just made updates to how it displays fares through both its website and app, as flagged by Thrifty Traveler. I don’t think anyone is going to like these updates…
In this post:
American hides basic economy with new fare displays
Historically American’s website has been pretty straightforward with how it displays fares. If you searched for a given route, you’d see all the fare choices on one page, from basic economy to first class.
But that’s no longer the case. Now when you search a fare in most markets, you’ll only see two columns displayed — “Main” and “Premium.”
You might assume “okay, great, that must mean that there’s no basic economy on this flight, and the cheapest fare doesn’t have major restrictions.” Well, you’d be wrong. Once you click on the downwards arrow next to “Main,” you’ll see an actual breakdown of the various economy fare options.
There are a lot of things that many of us can’t agree on in the world. However, I feel like this change being negative is something we can almost universally agree on. Does anyone think the new booking process is better? The way I view it, the issue here is twofold:
- Anyone looking to compare fares needs to do more clicking, to actually be able to compare pricing across various flights
- This is also downright deceiving, because “Main” is how American has historically described the non-basic economy fare, and now the fare shown on the initial page as being for “Main” is typically actually for basic economy
American’s basic economy fares of course come with extra restrictions. So while consumers typically want to book the lowest fare, American’s goal is always for people to “buy up” to the next higher fare, to generate extra revenue. I have to imagine that this change is part of that goal.
For what it’s worth, American is the only major US airline to display fares this way. All other major US airlines make it clear on the first booking page which fares are for basic economy, and which aren’t.
How American justifies this change
While the above was my take on these changes, what does American have to say? Here’s the carrier’s explanation for these changes:
Based on customer feedback, we’ve made strides in the last few months to simplify the booking experience on aa.com by grouping fares by cabin and then providing customers the option to click down to view details of various fare offerings in each cabin.
Our updated, more intuitive display shows first the options for Main Cabin or Premium Cabin, before then guiding the customer through each fare product within the respective cabin to provide more clarity to our customers on the type of fare they may choose to purchase, and the benefits that come with it.
This display ensures customers can comparison shop and choose the fare that makes the most sense for them based on their travel needs or benefits they may already receive through AAdvantage status.
So this is due to “customer feedback,” and is supposed to be “intuitive” and “provide more clarity.” To American’s credit, I can appreciate that the new format gives more of a side-by-side comparison of the fare types. However, previously you could click on each fare and see what was included, and there were also warnings when booking basic economy.
Maybe I’m a conspiracy theorist, but I just have a hard time imagining that this isn’t specifically intended to hide basic economy fares, and to appear to have more competitive pricing at first.
Bottom line
American Airlines has updated the way it displays fares on its website and app. Rather than listing the various types of fares (including basic economy) during the initial booking process, you now have to click through to an extra page to see the basic economy fare. Worst of all, the fare that’s initially displayed as “Main” is typically for basic economy (even though “Main” is how American has historically marketed non-basic economy).
What do you make of these changes to American’s booking process?
I disagree on this one too. Many airlines list the basic fare and do not separately list the basic fare.
This is SOOOOO much worse. Far from making it easier to compare, it takes way more work to compare. Hiding Basic economy (that I would STILL rather filter out all together) is frustrating at best, deceptive at worst. I can't even begin to find the true lowest fare for normal economy.
Add to all that, Premium can now include Premium economy! Seriously? That "cheap" premium may not even be business or first but actually an economy product.
Also, they have increased the difference between basic economy and main economy. Used to be around $40. Now its $50-100 for domestic flights. ShAAdy
Not really, people who will buy economy cabin will click the button and then see all the options including the basic economy. I do not feel this hides anything. On the contrary, sometimes when I search the flight on the third party website it shows the lowest price of "economy". However, I clicked it and found it is only basic economy, I feel a little bit deceived. Because not all airlines provide the basic economy...
Not really, people who will buy economy cabin will click the button and then see all the options including the basic economy. I do not feel this hides anything. On the contrary, sometimes when I search the flight on the third party website it shows the lowest price of "economy". However, I clicked it and found it is only basic economy, I feel a little bit deceived. Because not all airlines provide the basic economy so even their standard economy seat is almost the same price but the one offers a cheaper basic economy seat could get listed first.
Wow, you know it's when Frontier's new booking model is more transparent than AA. And I say that as someone who generally prefers AA.
I don't see a problem with this. Someone not very travel savvy might just click on the BE fare not really knowing the difference. Then later they want to change, but did not realize. Or they only got 2x LP instead of 5X and call AA.
If you buy BE then AA wants to make sure you know the rules.
100% false advertising. The word main on the traserfaredoes not appear in the basic fare. Two different animals.should be an unfair competition issue too.
One thing I’m not sure people caught with the bundles: before choosing the bundle with Main Cabin Extra seat, make sure there are non-middle seats available. As a travel advisor, I’m totally soured on working with AA. They’re cutting support for our passengers. This is just another step toward being Spirit.
Go to the AA and Delta apps, on an iPad, and look for flights from MIA to SEA on June 3rd. Tell which app displays more information with fewer clicks. Hint….its not the Delta app.
We need to allow foreign carriers to own and fly in the US. The problem is like with Ticketmaster if they could some carriers would by airports and then restrict access. Stop all this alliance crap and eliminate anti trust exemptions because each meeting those fools have is essentially an anti trust violation. I don’t blame them to make money but with all the open sky and anti trust they don’t have to worry about...
We need to allow foreign carriers to own and fly in the US. The problem is like with Ticketmaster if they could some carriers would by airports and then restrict access. Stop all this alliance crap and eliminate anti trust exemptions because each meeting those fools have is essentially an anti trust violation. I don’t blame them to make money but with all the open sky and anti trust they don’t have to worry about improving service competitively since there is no longer a competition at least not over the TATL since everybody thinks Americans are their cash cows.
Another disappointing “update” of AA flight experiences. Having been a customer since 1964 I am becoming more and more unhappy with AA. Add that to recent news about Bob Isom’s compensation package and I’m downright angry.
Most Euro carriers do this. KLM, AF. LH gorup, etc. So if i flew AA this would not bother me. i stick with DL or WN for my domestic travel They have never done me wrong so why look anyhere. Only way i would be on AA if it is a Skywest operated flight.
Very deceiving practice by AA. I noticed this earlier this week when buying a ticket and actually thought it was an error. When you see a price with "Main" that's what I was expecting to pay vs selecting "Main" and then getting a higher fare. I can't imagine consumers advocated for this new deceptive scheme.
I have been a very loyal AA frequent flyer with top tier status spanning over 33 years. Very disturbing...
Very deceiving practice by AA. I noticed this earlier this week when buying a ticket and actually thought it was an error. When you see a price with "Main" that's what I was expecting to pay vs selecting "Main" and then getting a higher fare. I can't imagine consumers advocated for this new deceptive scheme.
I have been a very loyal AA frequent flyer with top tier status spanning over 33 years. Very disturbing to see the continuous decline on many levels at AA that's alienating loyal customers and forcing me to look elsewhere prior to booking.
I want the default option of main cabin. Otherwise I’m seeing a basic economy fare then having to see a +$200 for main cabin I then have to click on. What is the point. It should be the other way around. If you want to fly basic economy then make a few more clicks. The 1 click and done should be for purchasing main cabin. Why would they hide main cabin ?
No need to overthink about that. Let's be honest, not many of us REALLY want Basic Economy. I would not lose sleep because of that. If someone want Basic Economy so bad they can choose google flight & would not bother to choose that from the airline.
Main = Main Cabin
Basic economy fares book into main cabin.
I see nothing wrong here.
Don't most people just search on google flights anyways, which makes this a nothing burger?
Looks exactly like WestJet. So doesn’t bother me.
And also exactly like Air Canada.
100% agree with Ben on this. Price Transparency regulation cannot come soon enough
Gotta be honest - completely disagree ben. And I'm not trying to be contrarian. It's one extra click and very clearly lays out the fares and differences while preserving the main screen display and keeping it cleaner. I think you may have woken up on the wrong side of the bed here
Agreed. I see this feature on a number of airlines. On Delta, click on a fare and a box pops up: 1) Non-refundable fare or 2) Fully-refundable fare. Award flights on BA, you are offered a sliding scale of points/cash. I don't see this as lowering transparency but rather increasing choice. Visually, the implementation is cleaner. But, reasonable people can disagree.
I agree. I much prefer this UI than having the cluttered main screen. I know I won’t book BE and expect to pay more than what it says for “Main” so, it’s a slight benefit to me.
I agree. The new display is actually cleaner, more transparent and more intuitive based on the fare and attributes I’m more interested in.
AA has two cabins -- Main and Premium. That is the first option.
On the second option, after you select Main Cabin, are the different flavors of Main Cabin. If they renamed Basic Economy to Basic Main, there wouldn't be any complaints about the pricing being misleading.
Unfortunate that Lucky copied Gary's clickbait post.
AA has eight cabins: basic economy, main cabin, main cabin extra, premium economy, business, first, flagship business and flagship first. To advertise the price of basic economy for all the first four cabins is incredibly deceptive.
I don't see it as better as such, but it's incredibly clear to me...
Even if you were someone who doesn't understand how fares work, a single click immediately tells you before you even begin the booking process, so I hardly see what the temper tantrums are about...
It's false advertising as far as I'm concerned and very annoying. And I'm someone that would never buy a basic economy fare.
Displaying an artificially low price to lure customers: basic economy fares are a fraud committed on the american people. Akin to hotel resort fees and other junk fees. If AA is ashamed of these fares to the point of hiding it under another name they should just stop offering them.
The difference is that hotel resorts fees are *mandatory* and cannot be opted-out of.
But you can fly basic economy without paying any add-ons. It might be unpleasant but its possible
Overheard at a recent AA Marketing staff meeting...
"Heh, let's also change the fare names to: 'Deluxe', 'Prime', 'Superior'. That will really help customers compare!"
So one click on "Main" and all the options display? Not a big deal really. If you're going for cheapest it will still be easily accessible.
To me, UA app is worse. Unless ‘basic economy, restricted fare’ box is checked, which may be out of screen for small phones, it won’t show basic economy fare.
What do you expect, AA needs to find money to pay the increased costs for its CEO.
This isn't that different from how Google Flights displays its search results. Google Flights also doesn't distinguish between Basic Economy and Main Economy when comparing airfares in economy, so Basic Economy fares determine the order of displayed results. I wish there's a way to exclude Basic Economy from the search results.
@ Tony -- I hear you, and it's something that many people are frustrated by. I think the reason that Google Flights doesn't display basic economy fares in that way is because of the wildly different restrictions with each airline. For example, some airlines include a carry-on, while others don't.
I think the other issue with American is how it's using the name of one of its branded fares ("Main") to now describe basic economy....
@ Tony -- I hear you, and it's something that many people are frustrated by. I think the reason that Google Flights doesn't display basic economy fares in that way is because of the wildly different restrictions with each airline. For example, some airlines include a carry-on, while others don't.
I think the other issue with American is how it's using the name of one of its branded fares ("Main") to now describe basic economy. It's one thing if the heading said "Economy" rather than "Main," but "Main" is a specific product that's different from basic economy.
Main used to just mean "main cabin"
I am not an AA apologist in the slightest but this new “grouping by cabin” was immediately apparent to me and as someone with a UX background, I actually do prefer the overall cleaner aesthetics of it.
Anyone who searches on Google Flights (without filters) should assume the lowest price being displayed initially has a high probability of being a Basic Economy fare. It’s really not much different here on AA.com.
What I’d also...
I am not an AA apologist in the slightest but this new “grouping by cabin” was immediately apparent to me and as someone with a UX background, I actually do prefer the overall cleaner aesthetics of it.
Anyone who searches on Google Flights (without filters) should assume the lowest price being displayed initially has a high probability of being a Basic Economy fare. It’s really not much different here on AA.com.
What I’d also like to see is AA doing more in the way of using photos to show seats and other onboard offerings.
That's why UX is overrated.
You ignore actual people who use it for the sake of aesthetics.
Not all flights offer basic fares.
You can't compare even on the same dates.
But you would rather compare a beautiful apple to a useless orange for aesthetics.
People who value their time don't need to waste it on "high probability of being a Basic Economy fare". If you display separately, the probability will always...
That's why UX is overrated.
You ignore actual people who use it for the sake of aesthetics.
Not all flights offer basic fares.
You can't compare even on the same dates.
But you would rather compare a beautiful apple to a useless orange for aesthetics.
People who value their time don't need to waste it on "high probability of being a Basic Economy fare". If you display separately, the probability will always be 1.
And to your discredit, engineers are also idiotically the other opposite, trying to add too many useless stuff.
@Eskimo, I don't think you understand what UX design is. You're confusing AA marketing saying they're making a change because people want it, with user experience design which is actually a process that includes (1) interviewing users to understand what they want to accomplish with the product and (2) testing designs with real users to ensure that the application works for users the way that the designers think it does. This has NOTHING to do with UX.
Google Flights providing Basic Economy results under Economy searches is the absolute worst part of using it. Why on earth would you want that horrible feature replicated? It should not be copied, nor used as justification for other bad design changes trying to push Basic Economy fares.
@axck Categorically agree. I *never* want to see Basic Economy fares -- why can't I just filter them out? And, as for Ben's idea that the reason is because BE is so different from airline to airline -- I mean, let that be up to the consumer to figure out, and go with whatever the airline labels it as in the search engine. Just show us standard economy fares if we wish, without having to...
@axck Categorically agree. I *never* want to see Basic Economy fares -- why can't I just filter them out? And, as for Ben's idea that the reason is because BE is so different from airline to airline -- I mean, let that be up to the consumer to figure out, and go with whatever the airline labels it as in the search engine. Just show us standard economy fares if we wish, without having to first click into a fare.
But, while we're at it, why can't I search only for flights with lie-flat seats in domestic (or int'l) First/Business?
I love Google Flights, but these two improvements would be game changers.
Okay, since AA still differentiates between „Main“ and „Basic Economy“ in the second step, they should name it correctly on the first page.
option 1)
Name it „Main“ and display the price of main (I.e. USD259)
Option 2)
Name it „Basic Economy“ and display the price of basic economy (I.e. USD209)
Option 3) Workaround
Name it „Economy Class“ and display the price as „starting from USD209)
Seems very ULCC-like. Which I guess is not unexpected with AA.