Basic Economy Fares Hit the Market — Skift Business Traveler

What to Know Now

American and United became the last two legacy carriers to start selling Basic Economy fares last week, kicking off a new era in airline ticket pricing.

The tickets, generally priced at around $15–20 less than standard economy fares, take away most perks like seat assignments and onboard baggage privileges. What they give back is apparently a lower baseline price for fares (though some might contest that) and a better ability for consumers to purchase exactly the amenities that they need.

Whether the fares are eventually seen as consumer friendly or not is still in the tea leaves, but in the short term, passengers now have another potential set of fees to look forward to.

Social Quote of the Day

We got a first look at the seating for the new “Basic Economy” fares several airlines are offering

– @michaelg4ny | Michael Gargiulo, Anchor WNBC New York

Airlines

IAG Makes Bigger Bet on the Narrow-Body Long-Haul Revolution: British Airways owner IAG SA is looking at acquiring more long-range narrow-body planes in order to open up intercontinental routes where demand is insufficient to support bigger twin-aisle jets. Read more at Skift

Spirit Airlines is Prepared for United and American’s Basic Economy Fares: A surge of no-frills seats at the biggest U.S. carriers potentially will backfire as passengers discover all the perks they’re giving up, said the chief executive officer of discounter Spirit Airlines Inc. Read more at Skift

Air France-KLM Gets Union Go-Ahead to Launch a New Airline: Air France pilots approved the carrier’s plan to carve out a new, lower-cost business to counter increasing pressure from rivals, marking a rare agreement with workers after years of contentious labor relations at the carrier. Read more at Skift

Delta Air Lines Has Ways of Making Passengers Pay for Their Free Meals: While people always like a “free” sandwich, it might be better to think of the “free” snack with an asterisk: You’re actually paying for these perks in other ways, unlike in years past when airlines offered food, drink, and flicks and rarely realized remuneration for them. Read more at Skift

Airports

UK Still Won’t Allow Flights to Egypt’s Sharm el Sheik Resort: Egypt expressed frustration on Saturday at Britain’s refusal to lift a suspension of flights from the United Kingdom to the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, imposed after Islamic State brought down a Russian airliner in 2015. Read more at Skift

U.S. Business Travel Recovery Is Threatened by the Trump Travel Ban: A new outlook on U.S. business travel included something unusual as of late — unexpected good news. But it came with a giant asterisk. Read more at Skift

Norwegian Air is Selling Trans-Atlantic Flights From Small U.S. Airports for $65 One Way: How much do consumers in smaller markets crave cheap trans-Atlantic flights? We’ll find out by this summer, when European discounter Norwegian Air launches 10 new routes from three smaller U.S. airports. Read more at Skift

Tech

A Germaphobic Traveler Shares Some Travel Hacks: It’s a good idea to bring Clorox wipes to disinfect hotel rooms. But how many travelers actually do it? If Jeff Klein never forgets, as he claims, he has an impressive record. Read more at Skift

How to Deal With Motion Sickness: Motion sickness — an inner ear disorder that causes nausea, dizziness, and even vomiting — is an unpleasant but common occurrence on car, boat, and plane trips, says Dr. Jennifer Derebery, a physician at the House Clinic in Los Angeles who specializes in ear disorders. Dr. Derebery offered these prevention tips. Read more at The New York Times

Monocle Founder on Design Inspiration and What’s Missing From Today’s Travel Ecosystem: Skift recently caught up with Monocle and Winkreative’s Tyler Brûlé for a deep dive on the recent rebranding of Air Canada. Read more at Skift

Hotels

Here’s What Hotel CEOs Think of Trump’s Travel Ban: While we wait for the Trump Administration to deploy the second iteration of its controversial travel ban affecting seven Muslim-majority countries, the travel industry has had a few weeks to process the original ban, which went into effect on January 27 and was blocked by federal courts earlier this month. Read more at Skift

Hyatt Gets Political in Advertising Campaign for New Loyalty Program: If you happen to tune in to watch the Academy Awards this Sunday, chances are you’ll catch Hyatt’s new ad campaign, “For a World of Understanding.” Read more at Skift

Accor CEO: We Want to Transform the Way Everyone Uses Hotels: AccorHotels is undergoing a major transformation in an effort to become a new breed of hospitality company, and the biggest example of that is the company’s most recent pilot program. Read more at Skift

IHG CEO: Our Focus Is on Building Up the Brands We Have: At a time when other global hotel companies are adding new brands (like Hilton) or contending with a portfolio of 30 brands (like Marriott), InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is focused on working with the brands it already has, as well as making sure the consistency and quality of all its hotels are up to par. Read more at Skift

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Tips and Comments

Can be sent to gm[at]skift[dot]com or to @grantkmartin

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