American announces basic economy
 

American Airlines Introduces New Basic Economy Fare - NASDAQ.com

" It’s a new fare product in Main Cabin, meaning Basic Economy customers will get the same on-board experience as everyone else in Main Cabin. In exchange for getting our lowest price, they’ll give up some amenities, including a large carry-on bag in the overhead bin, the ability to upgrade, and the ability to choose a seat for free. It’s not a new discount, it’s a new set of features for our lowest fares."

The beginning of the end, or a step in the right direction to help AA compete?

The freeing of overhead space could be a big win for all pax experience.
Or the rollout could be botched and another vet will be on the news telling how they got done wrong.

At big D, it seems to hinder our ability to predict loads for non-rev, (it's all about ME!), and seems to always cause a "stir" at the gate when a family with small children, (for example), are separated due to no advance seat selection.....(It's all about everybody else). Folks often don't understand that they're buying a seat, nothing else!

Recently flew American where they had a first class seat that was just the base. Paper sign said "Do not use"... Another first class seat was taped up to hold it together.... So is basic economy the equivalent to Hajj flights or high density Japan 747 domestic flights with 500 people?

Should a flight with 150-310 seats be canceled because one seat is inop?

No to answer your question. Not just one seat though. Is American that short of airframes that taped together and missing seats the norm? This was a flight out of a heavy maint. base... It was enjoyable listening to passengers talking about it.

Was that recently? A while back we were having major issues with a premium seat supplier. Maybe that was it?

Did you get from point A to B without hitting the ground anywhere in between?

If we were a 3rd world carrier that might be a good baseline.

I think we've moved on from that. People expect to arrive safely and not die on our flights. Safety is always #1 but we need to provide a good product in order to have customers. The better product we can provide the more customers we will get and the more customers we have the more pilot jobs there will be.

This is lost on our union and in cases our management.

What do you think? So you justify having the appearance of a third world carrier? TWA the latter years part 2