American Airlines Makes Pricing Less Transparent, Hides Basic Economy

Seems very ULCC-like. Which I guess is not unexpected with AA.

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)

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.

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. It's one thing if the heading said "Economy" rather than "Main," but "Main" is a specific product that's different from basic economy.

What do you expect, AA needs to find money to pay the increased costs for its CEO.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!"

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.

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.

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

Main used to just mean "main cabin"

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...

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.

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.

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.

100% agree with Ben on this. Price Transparency regulation cannot come soon enough

Looks exactly like WestJet. So doesn’t bother me.

@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.

Don't most people just search on google flights anyways, which makes this a nothing burger?

Main = Main Cabin
Basic economy fares book into main cabin.
I see nothing wrong here.

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.

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 ?

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.

And also exactly like Air Canada.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 agree. The new display is actually cleaner, more transparent and more intuitive based on the fare and attributes I’m more interested in.

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.

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

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.

@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.

I disagree on this one too. Many airlines list the basic fare and do not separately list the basic fare.

This isn’t really a big deal to me because AA doesn’t impose the draconian restrictions on Basic Economy that the others do. I often book BE when I’m fairly certain my plans won’t change. I still get all of the benefits that go with my status. The penalty on LPs doesn’t really affect my ability to reach PP or EP.