American Rolls Out Basic Economy On Most Domestic Routes

In February American began selling basic economy fares in 10 city pairs. They decided to take a somewhat slower approach to rolling out basic economy than United. United ripped the band-aid off quickly, so to speak, and rolled out basic economy fares in almost all domestic markets overnight (though they’ve backtracked just a little).

We’ve known that American plans on rolling out basic economy on a vast majority of domestic flights by the end of September. Well, American has now rolled out basic economy fares for all flights within the Continental US. Based on my research, it looks like these fares are on sale in most markets for flights as of September 12, 2017. American has confirmed that this happened, though for what it’s worth, there are a few markets where I don’t yet see these basic economy fares.

In most markets, the buy-up from basic economy to a regular fare seems to be $20-40 one-way, as you’d expect.

As a reminder, those booking basic economy on American:

• Aren’t able to select seats in advance; instead they’re automatically assigned seats at check-in, or can pay to assign seats 48 hours out


• No upgrades are permitted, even for elite members


• Only a personal item can be taken on the plane, and not a full size carry-on


• They have to board with the last boarding group


• Tickets are non-refundable and non-changeable, even at a fee


• Full redeemable miles and elite qualifying dollars are awarded for these fares, though only half elite qualifying miles and segments are awarded

Surely United is happy about American rolling out basic economy. United’s president, Scott Kirby (formerly American’s president) reported in June that just over 30% of United passengers were booking basic economy fares. He also noted that they weren’t seeing quite the increased revenue they had hoped to see, and blamed that partly on American not having fully rolled out basic economy. But now that American has rolled out basic economy, both airlines have finished the race to the bottom.

Oh well, it’s yet another sad day at American, which is nothing new. You’ll now have to pay extra for what was included before, and will also have to pay extra for the privilege of taking advantage of your elite benefits (not even factoring in all the cuts we’ve seen up until now).

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