Delta introduced basic economy fares in 2012, and then last year we saw both American and United introduce these fares. When Delta first introduced basic economy it was only available in select markets with competition from ultra low cost carriers, while American and United took it to the next level. They decided to make the…
Continue reading: Air Canada Introduces Basic Economy Fares
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Hum. Yyz-ord on the 1st of March is $500 for 2 people on tango. With new eco - - is it going to be like, $499? We need some real competition here :S
@Bitzer They will have Basic Economy for flights within Canada for now,so no cross-border or any other. They'll test it a little bit and then maybe consider adding it on crossborder or even transcontinental.
Basic Economy and expanding AC rouge domestically, welcome to Spirit Airlines of the North! Ac's motto used to be "We're not happy, till you're not happy". They will probably change to "Our customers really inconvenience us, make the AC experience as horrible and complex as possible."
Lucky -
Thanks for sharing!
Just a quick correction:
"Unlike with American and Delta, Air Canada isn’t restricting carry-on limits..."
I think you meant "American and United" - Delta allows a full-size carry-on for Basic Economy customers and will check it at the gate free of charge, without exception, while AA & UA will charge you $25 to do the same unless you're an elite or co-brand cardholder.
Not a big deal based on what you're reporting. People who consider ULCCs over legacy carriers are obviously not concerned with elite benefits and miles. I would wager they are most concerned with baggage. Getting only a personal item for free on Spirit, Frontier, etc. is a hard bargain for a lot of people. A full-sized carry on is a discriminator.
I thought Tango was already the equivalent of Basic Economy, since AC charges you to select a seat even on that fare. I guess AC is still a strong contender in the 'race for the bottom' of the North American carriers.
We still haven't gotten to Minimum Viable Product Economy. Since Tango was already pretty much basic economy, I think the tag line here should be 'Now Even More Basic'!
No carry-ons is actually one of the nice features for the rest of the plane. Faster boarding and more overhead space.
This isn't going to make much of a difference to the people most likely to use it, i.e. people who only fly a couple times a year or less and aren't worried about accumulating status miles.
The people who stand to lose are road warriors whose companies require them to book into the lowest fare class on domestic travel. I hope for their sake that basic economy segments still count towards status?
Basic Economy segments do not count towards status unfortunately.. had a few biz trips not show up and when I enquired, was told the bad news.
I usually do about $20-25k in biz travel each year and do about 100 - 120 flight segments, but now depending on when I get booked, some of my trip segments won't count meaning I probably won't re-qualify for SE in 2020.
My Darling SE Status - we've had a good long run and had our fun, but if you're not putting out after I spend all that dough, methinks it's time to move on.
Is Cathay Pacific with OneWorld? Always wanted to try CP to Asia