FORWARD TO BASICS The fare designed not to sell

Posted on 03/03/2016

Anyone who has ever complained about “you want it, you pay for it” à la carte ticket pricing at the hands of the airlines everyone loves to hate like Ryanair, Spirit, and Allegiant, should pay close attention to what is happening at Delta: Almost inconceivably, it could soon make the bad guys look like good guys.

Like many of their ‘full service’ brothers in arms, the good ol’ boys from Atlanta are now clearly intimidated by the success of the ultra low cost carriers, so they’re slowly introducing a new product they have branded ‘Basic Economy.’ Unlike the somewhat muddily named price buckets that airlines often invent, there is nothing to confuse the buyer with the ‘basic’ fare.The definition of the word ‘basic’ is: “offering or consisting of the minimum required without elaboration or luxury; simplest or lowest in level” and this new fare is just that - basic in the extreme. But even then it has an unexpected twist. Forget à la carte as, even if you want the carte, with this fare you can’t get your grubby little paws on it at any price!Well, that’s not quite true. You can get the basics that the eponymously named Basic fare denies you – things like carry-on baggage, itinerary changes, refunds and advance seat assignments - you just can’t add them on to this fare. The solution therefore is simply to avoid buying Basic in the first place and move right on up to the next rung with a ‘Main Cabin’ ticket … or something that could maybe be more accurately branded the “Less Inflexible Fare.”That is the maniacal genius behind this fare. Unlike the ULCC’s where you have a genuinely low fare to which, item by item, you can add those things that you value, Delta’s ‘Basic’ fare doesn’t afford you that opportunity.  It is quite deliberately the very definition of inflexibility. Rather than offering a low fare then promoting the sale of ancillary items like the ULCC’s, Delta is now able to throw out a low, shop window, “Fares from as low as $xx” ticket price and then set about making sure that as few people as possible actually want to buy it.Why? Well consider for instance the consequences of not being able to pay for advance seat selection. As those fellow passengers higher up the caste system in ‘Main Cabin’ class do have the ability to select seats in advance, the chances are pretty good that by the time the Basic flier gets to the gate to discover what dregs they’ve been allocated, it’s going to be a no-recline last row in the back cabin seat, right next to the lavs.  Joy!Buy the Basic fare and, on the vast majority of flights, couples or families can forget any crazy notion they might have been harboring about sitting together.Forget last minute changes of plan for even the most heart-rending of sickness or death in the family reasons - with the Basic fare you are plug out of luck.  Not even for a change fee is there any applicability to future travel. No-show and you can wave your Basic bucks bye-bye.The recently more customer-friendly management at Ryanair, Spirit and Frontier must be loving this.  Just as they are re-bundling certain more popular add-ons, loosening overly tough penalties and generally trying to be nicer to people, along comes Delta with the ‘You can’t even pay us to carry that bag on board fare’.To listen to Glen Hauenstein, Delta’s EVP and Chief Revenue Officer tell it as it isn’t, he’d have us believe that Basic is beautiful. At a press conference he whimsically waxed that, “Whether a customer prioritizes the perks of Delta One (that’s the top of the food chain) or the value of Basic Economy, every seat comes with impeccable service and unmatched reliability.” Hmm?Maybe Walter Scott should have the final word on this… “Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.”