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Mina Kim: Welcome to Forum. I’m Mina Kim. An NBC News headline this week probably summed it up best: “Flying in America is about to get more expensive and less fun.” Though if you fly basic economy, it probably wasn’t all that much fun to begin with.
A confluence of events has increased the potential for a rough spring travel season. The partial government shutdown has caused long lines at airport security as TSA workers go without pay, and airlines are starting to increase ticket prices as the cost of jet fuel rises from the U.S. war on Iran. Add to that, airlines are chipping away at what few perks remain on the lowest-tier—or basic economy—flights, which is where we begin this hour with Andrea Sachs, travel reporter for The Washington Post. Welcome to Forum, Andrea.
Andrea Sachs: Hi there. So happy to be here. Actually, I wish I were there, but it would cost me $1,000, and I’d probably miss my flight because I’d get stuck in the TSA line.
Mina Kim: Well, your recent piece is called “Why Do Airlines Hate Basic Economy Passengers?” and it does kind of feel like they hate us. Are we, like, their lowest priority?
Andrea Sachs: I’m not trying to take it personally, but come on—yes. We’re the littlest ones, and I do feel like they’re picking on us. I say “we” because I fly basic economy; I don’t really see the point in spending more than I need to.
So when they introduced this, they were competing with the ultra-low-budget carriers—Frontier and Spirit—and those are bare-bones. Basic economy is like a step up from that. It’s like a motel versus a youth hostel. But it’s really simple—you don’t get many perks.
Mina Kim: Yeah—what do the restrictions tend to be?
Andrea Sachs: No seat selection—they choose the seat for you, so you lose your autonomy. You’re the last to board, which means oftentimes there’s no room in the overhead bins for your bags, so you have to gate-check.
And for a lot of people, this is the hardest part: it’s nonrefundable. So you’re really stuck with that ticket. If you need to change, alter, or cancel it, there are options, but you’re often going to have to pay more to fix your mistake than you would just going on the flight. They charge a change fee, plus any difference in fare, so they make it really onerous to change a basic economy ticket.
Mina Kim: And of course, you have to pay to check your bag—but are airlines also moving toward making us pay to carry on a bag?
Andrea Sachs: United—I’m shocked—they’re the one holdout in a different way. Most airlines with basic economy allow a personal item—the little bag that fits under the seat—and a carry-on. United charges, and they don’t just throw a small fee at you. They charge $65—and they shame you.
So when you show up thinking, “Maybe I can just sneak it on,” your boarding pass will say you’re basic economy. You have to pay $65 to gate-check, and then they’ll also charge you the normal checked-bag fee. So they’re basically saying, “You are not getting away with this.”
Mina Kim: Mm-hmm.
Andrea Sachs: So I tend not to fly United because I’m not very good at shoving everything into a tiny bag under my seat, which is what Spirit and Frontier require.
Mina Kim: I see. And why is basic economy in the news now? Are they taking even more away?
Andrea Sachs: They are. As if that weren’t enough, now they’re taking our miles away.
We didn’t accumulate many miles to begin with—back in the day, it was based on distance, so you earned points based on miles flown. Now it’s based on how much you pay. So obviously, we’re paying the least, so we earn the fewest miles—but now they’ve taken that away entirely. Even though we’re loyalty members, we’ve lost the biggest perk.
Mina Kim: And is this kind of a breaking point for you? You said you fly basic economy—are you thinking about no longer being loyal to your airline?
Andrea Sachs: It’s so funny—it kind of feels like a bad boyfriend. There are still some good things about the relationship, but they need to step it up to woo me and court me.
So I am definitely looking elsewhere. I’ll fly JetBlue—they used to charge for carry-ons in basic economy, but they reversed that, so now they allow it. So I’m looking at them in markets where they’re competitive, especially where you have all the major airlines.
Mina Kim: Well, let me invite listeners into the conversation—we’re having a little trouble with your connection there, Andrea.
But listeners, does air travel seem like it’s gotten even worse for you recently? What’s been your experience? Do you buy basic economy tickets? Is the savings worth the inconvenience, or have you changed your travel habits to avoid the hassle? And what are your go-to travel tips to make things easier?
You can email forum@kqed.org, find us on Discord, Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, or Threads @kqedforum, or call 866-733-6786. That’s 866-733-6786.
Andrea, is there an argument to be made that basic economy fares—at least in a positive sense—have made flying more accessible?
Andrea Sachs: They have—and they haven’t. Typically, when you’re booking, you’ll see the basic economy fare, but oftentimes it’s sold out, or they might not even offer it on really competitive routes because they don’t need us.
They’ll have people who will pay for standard economy, which isn’t that much more—maybe $50 or $70—and then going up the scale. Who they really want are the high-end customers: business class, first class.
But they don’t want to cut us loose completely, and we don’t necessarily want to leave them either. We still get advantages from flying legacy airlines: free entertainment, good apps, easier customer service, complimentary drinks and snacks, and often more comfortable seats.
So I think a lot of us will keep doing it—looking at fares on the major airlines. It would take a lot to push people down to ultra-budget carriers. But with airfares rising because of the oil crisis and instability in the Middle East, that might happen.
Mina Kim: Yeah. Well, Steve on Discord writes, “Airlines don’t care about any of their passengers. Big companies only care about their bottom line. They reduce costs wherever possible. Doing so is easier at the bottom end of the market, where the non-wealthy are less capable of pushback. The wealthy require a better illusion of care.”
I think one of the worries is: where does this stop? Not that long ago, things like picking your seat or getting a free checked bag were standard. And we’ve rapidly moved to this new model. So how much more are airlines going to ask travelers to tolerate? Is there much more room to squeeze?
Andrea Sachs: There’s that joke—especially with Ryanair, the most bare-bones carrier I’ve flown in Europe—like, “Are you going to charge me to use the toilet?”
At some point, they know they need us. They need people to fill seats because it’s expensive to run an airline. But they may be pickier about who they want.
If they keep stripping away perks, we might go elsewhere. But I don’t know if they care as much anymore—they’re sending signals that they don’t.
There are other carriers worth looking at. Breeze has been expanding, and I’ve enjoyed flying them. They serve secondary markets where legacy airlines charge a lot—hundreds of dollars—and Breeze comes in cheaper. So it might be worth broadening your search and not always defaulting to the big three.
Mina Kim: We’re talking about the state of air travel as airlines raise costs and cut services for economy passengers, with Andrea Sachs, travel reporter for The Washington Post—and with you, our listeners.
You can join the conversation at 866-733-6786, on social media @kqedforum, or by emailing forum@kqed.org.
More after the break. I’m Mina Kim.
