As a 1K who is often buying last minute F fares this is going to push up those prices for standard F even more. As “Marge and Bob”, the retirees in Florida go ahead and pay the basic F far in advance the standard fares start moving up even more. To the point that the loyal 40K plus PQP flyers who were even willing to pay for F are now being priced out of the market. The new “upgrade” is going to become a standard fare that has not been pounded by the Marge and Bob’s booking the cheaper basic. I think this will backfire. UA is going to find their entire F cabin is filled with the cheaper bookings and no one is paying the standard. Once again, loyalty is slowing being killed.
I will see how this plays out for now – but this decision may be the line in the sand for me as to free agency.
This is great news for Amex airline fee credit, you can now get the seat selection fee refunded ! /s
So sorry. But this is stupid. Maybe restaurants should charge to make reservation. Charge extra for better seats. Do not allow backpack without paying extra. Yes United moneyizes their product to the point of stupidity. There is enough stupid in airline industry. They do not need to create more.
This is just a very smart way for charging more for the same amount of services. The modus operandi is the first few weeks or months the basic first class would be cheaper than the normal first class allowing the gullible to tout the basic fares are a giant win for the consumers. But then price of the basic first class will be raised to the current levels and the prices for the normal first class will be raised even higher.
I just don't care anymore. I already gave up on premium cabins within Europe unless I can fly A3/BA/TK due to the ongoing enshitification on other airlines (cold meals on AFKL, no choice of meals on LO and most LHG routes...) and when it comes to longhaul, these stupid Business Light fares are increasingly unbundling me from European airlines altogether. I'm currently on a trip with Starlux, flying on the cheapest fare. Not only are all standard business class features included, but when I called mid trip to see how much it'd cost to extend my layover in Taipei by a week, to my surprise they quoted me a relatively low 115€ reissue fee. No way I'm going to back to Air France with their stupid Business Light (or even Business Flex which also can't be reasonably modified after first segment is flown) after this experience.
TLDR: If western airlines are gonna act like all customers care about is the price, I'm gonna accept that, book the cheapest economy for shorthaul, and use the money I saved to fly civilised airlines on longhaul.
So, basically this is a rollback of the lie that airlines told when they said were permanently ending change fees. I cant believe an airline would lie to us!