Delta Main Basic Economy
Recently Delta decided to do some rebranding of their flight classes. While it wasn't Marriott Rewards to Bonvoy bad, it is definitely shadier. Their most recent change is pretty much a rebranding in name only. The change was to rename Delta Basic Economy to Delta Main Basic Economy (first noticed by Thrifty Traveler). Why would they make such a nothing burger change? Mainly so they can play games with the way flight prices are shown, and therein lies the rub.
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What Has Changed
I was booking a flight for some friends using Skymiles the other night. My buddy had sent me a screenshot of their desired flight. It was supposed to be for 17,500 Skymiles in Main (without the 15% credit card discount). That is how it came up in my search as well. Well, until I clicked on the option to book it.
That is when I realized that Main no longer means Main Cabin. In the past Delta would list out Basic Economy separately when it was available. That way you would quickly know what was priced as Basic Economy and what was consider Main Cabin. This is the only reason I could see be why Delta made the name change to Delta Main Basic.
This way they can show the lowest price of the two, and just list it under Main. While the pricing is technically true, it still feeds like bait and switch when you click to book your award flight. At that point you realize that if you want an actual Main booking it will cost more. It all feels to convenient to not purposefully be deceiving. In the past it was clear when the price was basic economy or main cabin, but now they are lumped together. It makes searching a way bigger pain in the butt too. Now you need to click through a couple more options to see the legit price you want to book. Has Delta just become Spirit Airlines and packaged out all of the perks of booking their flights without a higher fee? At least American Airlines lets you use your status perks on their Basic Economy.
The Workaround
The good thing is there is a workaround to avoid Delta Main Basic economy results all together. When searching flights directly on Delta's site at least. I can't guarantee anything on third party sites. The workaround is to do an Advanced Search. Once you select that on the main page, you can click the drop box highlighted above, and then select Delta Main. This way the calendar view and everything will show Delta Main and block out Delta Main Basic from the results.
The downside is many people won't realize that this is an option, or will just forget to do it. I assume most third party search engines will pull Delta Main Basic on searches too, but it will look like it is regular Delta Main.
Delta Main Basic Economy: ToP Thoughts
I don't like this change at all, if you couldn't already tell. Delta made a name change, to an already hated program, solely to make the booking process more convoluted. The only reason that I can see to name it Delta Main Basic is so that you can misrepresent the prices on people's searches. Everyone will assume Main means Main Cabin, while it really means Main Basic OR Main. They will list the lower priced option each time, but you won't know what that means until you click through to the booking page.
Let me know what you think of these Delta booking changes over in the ToP Facebook Group.
