American Airlines says it is just “simplifying the booking experience” but in reality is engaging in deception by conflating “main cabin” fares with “basic economy” fares in a way that reduces transparency.
American Airlines Obscures Economy Class Pricing On Website + App
When searching for a ticket on aa.com, you will now see two initial options: main or premium. For example, here’s a look at Los Angeles to Chicago:
Click through and you’ll find the two fare options. Note that “Main” starts at $280. Historically, “Main” is “regular” economy class cabin while “basic economy” is the more limited economy class product meant to compete with low-cost carriers that restrict advanced seating, changes, and earning elite status.
Click through, though, and you will see that “Main” is actually priced at $325 per person, with the $280 fare for basic economy. I agree with View From The Wing that this is akin to bait and switch!
Historically, AA separated basic economy from the Main cabin during the initial flight search results.
In defining the change, American Airlines argued this is about “simplifying” the booking experience:
Based on customer feedback, we’ve made strides in the last few months to simplify the booking experience on aa.com by grouping fares by cabin and then providing customers the option to click down to view details of various fare offerings in each cabin.
Our updated, more intuitive display shows first the options for Main Cabin or Premium Cabin, before then guiding the customer through each fare product within the respective cabin to provide more clarity to our customers on the type of fare they may choose to purchase, and the benefits that come with it.
This display ensures customers can comparison shop and choose the fare that makes the most sense for them based on their travel needs or benefits they may already receive through AAdvantage status.
I get where American Airlines is coming from and am not ready to simply reduce its display changes to deception. It’s true that AA calls its economy product “Main” and that basic economy would fall within the broader “Main” cabin.
Even so, particularly in terms of flight search results, “Main” has historically been associated with a specific product, distinct from basic economy. And you can see that because “Main” is still priced as a separate and more expensive product in the screenshot above.
I suppose the quickest way AA could fix this would be to relabel the broader fare category “economy” instead of “Main” but simple is not always better and certainly is not here. Instead, AA should display basic economy as a separate class category during the initial search results, as it has done for years.
CONCLUSION
American Airlines says it is simplifying its fare search results and making it easier for consumers to comparison shop. In reality, it is creating consumer confusion and forcing an extra click to understand what the fare truly is. It’s time for American Airlines to restore its old initial fare display.
That’s literally a more deceptive practice. But it could be worse, it could be DL “simplifying” the status climb requirements.
I am starting to get scared of the words “simplifying” or “enhance” when it comes to these carriers.
Those are two bad words – always.
Kinda like “demuckracy” and the governments use of the term “free”.
This is deliberate deception and exactly why we need price transparency regulation, because without it the likes of AA will continue to screw people over
Agreed. This is the bottom line!
Yes, we need more regulation to fix the regulation that caused this….. Brillant insight.
I hate it because for better or worse, I’m generally going to fly AA. It’s annoying not being able to search without seeing Basic fares. I’m not going to book Basic, so they’re not deceiving me. They’re inconveniencing me.
think the more interesting thing is they are using “premium” for the premium cabin not first or business
Is AA going the WJ route by selling domestic F as premium economy?
Or, if AA had the IT ability, AA could offer the same display style as United – when you’re signed in at United on the app or website, you can toggle so that basic economy is never shown in the search results. But AA IT is not that stellar.
Because wouldn’t it be best if you could just ignore basic Econony completely?
Are you saying AA has taken the f out of the word flying?
I find it fascinating that the entire business is based on loyalty, with flying only a loss-leader meant to deliver benefits to the FFP, but then AA pulls needless stunts like this.
Recently had to go CLT-DTW. I came across this issue and was disappointed in the way American “low balled” the airfare. Ended up on DElta Eceonomy Plus which had clear and direct pricng.
American is going to get a lot of negative feeed back as they continue to “play games” with the cost of a Main acbin seat.
As I fly this year, I will look at American with a jaudiced eye.
The problem is their stupid name for Y. Literally every airline in the world is calling their classes ‘Economy’, ‘Premium Economy’, ‘Business’, and ‘First’, but the US airlines think that they’re being clever by using different names for the same thing. Worse still, they’ve also managed to rub a bit of that off on a couple of other countries where American influence is quite big (namely México and the UK). I don’t want to have to memorise and understand the definitions of Cabina Principal, Mint, Polaris, Flagship and non-flagship business, World Traveller Plus, Envoy or whatever made up nonsense the marketing intern came up with last week (I suppose ‘One’ might make sense if they also had Two and Three, BUT THAT WOULD BE WAY TOO SENSIBLE)- it adds no value to the passenger experience, certainly doesn’t influence anyone’s willingness to pay more for their ticket and can easily confuse less experienced travellers.