American Airlines has today announced some updates to its baggage policy, as well as an expansion of basic economy to more markets. Here’s how Vasu Raja, American’s Chief Revenue Offer, describes these changes:
Continue reading: American Airlines Baggage & Basic Economy Updates
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I'm sure AA know what they are doing, but I'm not entirely sure how they think that they will compete with Qantas and Air New Zealand's offerings to Oceania. I'm sure some will be attracted to the fares basic economy can offer, and some won't appreciate that there is a difference, but the 'it's included' approach of carriers here will likely win over those who do.
Not much of a change. I wonder how long AA will continue to offer a free checked bag for BE. Seems as though that's revenue left on the table. I also wonder when travel rebounds if airlines in general will start to re-introduce certain fees.
This kind of devalues one of the Benefits of the Citi AAdvantage Cards with first bag fee included.
Dean, I am not sure what you mean. All long haul main cabin tickets already included at least one checked bag. Domestic charges for checked bags remain un-changed by this.
Dean no it doesn’t. That card is for domestic purposes only. They still have to pay for a bag on domestic routes. This is long haul routes to international destinations.
Yawn - lifetime Platinum here so I get 2 bags checked regardless of route or class of service.
To bad they wont allow these rules to apply to tickets purchased as of January 1, 2021 or for people with upcoming flights. This would make their customers happy as well! It would make me EXTREMELY HAPPY!
"Asia" - Useless term.
"East Asia", "South Asia", "Middle East" - Useful terms.
Basic Economy in 2021 is the Economy of 2019. At first, the "no change fees" announcements from the carriers seemed like a big win for passengers--but these follow-up announcements make it clear that "normal" economy will just look more and more like the "flexible" economy fares of two years ago.
The only question then is--what will carriers call the inevitable, even lower fare class of Basic Economy without the free checked bag?
AA is a trash company. Won't even return people's money. Who can't fly do to Covid. Everyone else is helping people out. Not them.
For those of us that fly Basic Economy, I sure wish they'd let us check one bag. Learn from the success of Southwest Airlines.
Massive problem here. I normally fly to Japan about 3x a year (enough to get myself to gold, but not plat) for work and losing a bag places a massive burden on me, especially if bag fees are still in the $100 range for a second bag. They have made a lot of awful decisions in all this, it's entirely possible that they may be losing our company as a primary means of transit soon.