When did American Airlines become an Ultra-Low-Cost Airline?
I’m not being cynical. When did American Airlines start selling tickets in bundles resembling those sold by Frontier and Spirit instead of being more like Delta or United?
I have a stash of American Airlines AAdvantage miles, so I usually book award tickets for our flights. When booking award flights, I only have two choices: Main Cabin or First Class. On a domestic flight, I’m not going to pay for First Class, so we’ll book Main Cabin.
For this flight, a one-way ticket costs 11,500 AAdvantage miles plus $5.60 in taxes. For that price, I’m able to sit for free in any seat in the back of the plane. 
With my award ticket, I can also pay for a Main Cabin Extra or a Preferred seat.
But the same can not be said if I was paying for a seat on the same flight. The cheapest option would be a Basic Economy ticket. The $115 price matches the 11,500 miles for an award seat, but you’ll get much less.
The regular ticket on the same flight costs $79 more and allows you to select a Main Cabin seat. If you’re not willing to purchase the most restrictive ticket, this would be the most reasonable option.
For an extra $47, you can get a free checked bag, an extra legroom seat, and get to board with Group 5 by paying up for a Main Plus ticket.
For an additional $24, you can upgrade (or downgrade) to Main Select. You’ll get Group 4 boarding and same-day changes. However, you’ll lose your checked bag. But if you’re a business traveler and only have carry-on bags, losing a checked bag in favor of same-day changes might be a good trade-off.
Final Thought
Come on, American Airlines. You offer a $115 Basic Economy fare, but the regular fare starts at $194. And the fare the business travelers want will cost $265. At this point, you’re no better than a ULCC. If that’s where you are, then that’s fine. Then start charging for carry-on bags and lower your checked baggage weight allowance.
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5 comments
I think your overall gripe is valid I lay that at the feet of the upper management and their myopic ULCC mentality they’ve dragged along all the way back to AmericaWest. Unfortunately, AA is not equipped to operate as a ULCC and needs to find competent management that can utilize the airline’s strengths rather than competing with Frontier.
On a separate topic, one thing that struck me is when you wrote “The $115 price matches the 11,500 miles for an award seat”. That means that you see an airline’s miles – besides Delta – to be worth one cent each? Forgetting really aspirational uses for AA miles since I’m just not gonna spend $8,000 in cash on a ticket no matter what, I pretty much get near two cents per mile in redemptions. For that matter, I’d say that because the award offered the equivalent of full fare coach the $265 Main Select seat would be about equal to the 11,500 miles. That would be around 2.5 cents per mile – not bad.
You must not travel the other airlines. DL and UA have similar pricing w BE, main and comfort+ (or whatever UA calls it). May not bundle baggage but costs separately (unless elite).
Nothing article that shows more about your ignorance than anything AA is doing!
Just get an AA credit card which gives you a free checked bag and priority/preferred boarding. And unlike with Alaska or United you don’t even have to use your credit card when paying. United offers more charges than AA does.
European airlines will charge you to choose a seat, even Business Class unless you have status.
I always try to have an AA co-brand card to improve the travel experience but if I really want to have a comfortable flight, it requires paying for a extra legroom seat.
AA is a large network carrier that has an LCC mentality. The problem with that is AA’s operating costs are not low, and there’s little it can do to change that.