United Announces ‘Basic Economy’ Fares

Be ready for a middle seat.

If you don’t mind checking a bag, sitting in a middle seat, and boarding last, United Airlines has a new ticket class just for you: Basic Economy.

Basic Economy is not a new concept—Delta’s been doing it for a few years now—but United’s Basic Economy comes with even more restrictions than Delta’s.

Basic Economy | United Airlines

With Delta Basic Economy, Delta picks your seat for you and doesn’t allow you to change or refund your ticket after the standard 24-hour cancellation period. You’re also ineligible for seat upgrades, and you’re the last group to board the plane. (I don’t actually see that as a drawback, but I know that some people appreciate having more time to board the plane and get settled.)

With United Basic Economy, the same rules apply—expect everyone in your party to get a middle seat, don’t change your ticket after the first 24 hours, don’t expect an upgrade, and be ready to board last—but you also lose two other perks:

• The ability to earn certain types of miles. As United puts it: “MileagePlus program members will earn redeemable award miles; however they will not earn Premier qualifying credit (miles, segments, or dollars), no lifetime miles, and no contribution to four segment minimum.”
• The ability to use the overhead bins. Basic Economy passengers—excepting those of us who are “a MileagePlus® Premier® member, primary cardmember of a qualifying MileagePlus credit card, or Star AllianceTM Gold member”—are only allowed to bring one personal item on board the aircraft, “such as a shoulder bag, backpack, laptop bag or other small item that is 9 inches x 10 inches x 17 inches (22 cm x 25 cm x 43 cm) or less.”

So you’ll be in a middle seat with no overhead bin space, but you can still check a bag—which means that for a lot of us, the choice of Basic Economy vs. Economy might come down to “am I going to save more than $50 on this flight?”

That’s the big question that United hasn’t yet answered. As Consumerist reports, United will start offering Basic Economy fares “in January 2017 for flights in March,” so we won’t be able to Basic Economy ourselves home for the holidays, and we won’t know until next year how much cheaper these flights will be.

It is interesting to think about overhead bin space being worth so much that United is willing to discount a ticket to prevent you from using it. It’s better than if they had gone the other way around and started charging for overhead bin space, the same way airlines charge for priority boarding and premium seating—but I could also see a scenario in which Basic Economy fares creep up until they’re equivalent to today’s Economy fares, and Economy is equivalent to today’s Economy Plus, and so on.

Would you buy a Basic Economy fare? I would, but I’m a petite single woman who rarely uses overhead bin space. (I’m also a bag-checker. I don’t want to buy a bunch of tiny toiletries that aren’t the brands I regularly use.) United’s Basic Economy is probably ableist, since it assumes you’ll be able to board quickly, sit anywhere, and won’t need much during the flight, and Basic Economy definitely benefits single people more than families—but you could also view it as “if I pay less for a worse seat, that leaves the better seats for people who need them more than I do.” I don’t know. What do you think?

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