Delta offers several fare products including Basic Economy, Main Cabin, Delta Comfort +, as well as First/Business Class fares, and generally they get more expensive in that order.
However, I was searching on a recent flight from Las Vegas to New York (JFK), and noticed that Delta was selling some Basic Economy fares for the same price as Main Cabin fares.
After doing some more research, it seems like the error is in the Basic Economy fares prices, which should be less than the Main Cabin fares as other days these were running for $98.
Perhaps, Delta decided to not match the other low-cost carriers on this route such as JetBlue and instead of removing the Basic Economy fare option, they increased it to the Main Cabin fare, which isn’t the route I would of gone.
As a savvy traveler, you’d know to book the Main Cabin fare, but I can’t help but think some people are out there buying these Basic Economy fares.
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To me this makes the most sense for Delta. How many folks are not going to know the difference between the two and just click the first one? Also, I checked the flights you had above and if you booked on Expedia it put you in to (E). So now Delta can very easily get folks who don’t travel often in to paying the same price and getting less.
Way to go Delta – you just added a whole new spin to the expression “Less is More!”
If they were ethical they wouldn’t sell basic economy fares when priced the same as main cabin.
Delta is the worst airline I’ve ever flown with and will not fly with them ever again. Their booking glitches cost me $360 last week on a flight I was trying to book in China. I’ll stick with all the other major carriers and my family won’t be flying with them again
Given that a pop-up appears as soon as you click “Select” that explains all the limitations of Basic Economy, and that you have to both click a checkbox agreeing to the limitations AND click a button to accept the fare, it’s hard for me to believe that there are large numbers of idiot customers out there selecting E vs V fares…