You can now select your seat—for a fee, of course.
After United rolled out its basic economy fares (and lost a cool $100 million because customers didn't actually want a rock-bottom, you-can't-make-any-changes-or-have-any-perks ticket) the airline has decided to make a small change to its policy: It will let basic economy fliers pick their seats up to 24 hours before flying—for a fee, of course. With that move, United joins American, which allows basic economy passengers to select a seat within 48 hours of departure; Delta also offers basic economy, but as of today, doesn't let passengers in the fare class select their seats.
There's a dark side to basic economy, the no-frills product developed by U.S. carriers to compete with budget airlines like Spirit and Frontier, who were drawing away customers from the Big Three (American, United, Delta). But the fare class also serves another financial purpose for the airline: It was also largely designed to encourage customers to “upgrade” to the next-highest fare, which used to be the bottom rung on the ladder and now subsequently looks better when compared side-by-side with basic economy. (Hello...economy?) As Delta president Glen Hauenstein said recently, "The success of that product isn't how many people buy it, in our mind, but how many people don't buy it and choose another product."
While the move undercuts the basic tenet of basic economy—this is what you get, and there are no changes allowed—it inches closer to à la carte pricing, which, one could argue, is the very thing that's made these low-cost airlines so attractive in the first place. Now if only we didn't have to board dead last.