RunningBum
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2007
- Messages
- 13,236
I saw some negatives about traveling on basic experience, so I thought I'd share my experience from this week on Delta and American on domestic flights halfway across the country, with connecting flights.
First, make sure you read the disclaimers. They can't be transferred or cancelled, though some have had luck, for now. You may be limited in how much you can carry on, and you can't select your seats when you book, and possibly not at all. You probably can't upgrade. Probably other limitations. Read closely when you book, especially if you don't book through the airline.
I had a lot of misgivings after booking, because I hate airline travel, hate middle seats, and often upgrade to 1st class or premium if it's available. I wondered why I was being cheap, and was a bit tempted the week before travel to take their offer to pay for an assured economy seat.
At exactly 24 hours before, I checked in. To my surprise, I was able to grab exit row seats for both myself and my son on the first flight, but not the second. I found that we were on "standby", which upset me that we may not even get on the flight, but googling showed that it was standby for seat assignment, not standby for getting a ticket. Even at the airport we still didn't have seats for that second flight.
Oh, btw, Delta allows a carry on and under seat bag (most other airlines do not for that fare), but we could still have to check it if the overheads were full. But since we were exit row, we were zone 1 so there was plenty of space.
As we landed at the connecting airport, I checked the Delta app and found that we had been assigned another exit row seat, and again zone 1. My son had a middle seat next to me, but that was fine. We actually hadn't booked together since he had a different return, but since we were on the "standby list" together, they seemed to assign seats in order, front to back as available, so we wound up together, or maybe they noticed the same name and did it.
My son flew back on American, and checked in 24 hours in advance and got non-middle seats. I didn't find out about carry ons but he was ready to consolidate to one bag under the seat if needed.
On my return I could only get the 2nd flight seat assigned, again an exit row, 24 hours in advance. When I got to the airport about an hour early, I found they had put me in an exit row for the first flight too.
So, I went 4 for 4 with exit rows, probably by checking in right at 24 hours in advance. Better seats than I would've had with the more expensive regular economy.
As it turned out, my first flight on the return got in early and I had noticed that I had a chance to make an earlier connecting flight. They had already boarded but the doors were open, and after asking me if I was Delta platinum or something like that, they said there was just one seat open in the very back. A terrible seat but it saved me 3 hours in ATL so I took it. As I walked on, I noticed the bulkhead seats were empty but maybe they couldn't or didn't give them to me because of the basic economy ticket. It was only an hour or so flight so no big deal.
I wonder if I just got super lucky with seats, or if basic economy really isn't that bad.
First, make sure you read the disclaimers. They can't be transferred or cancelled, though some have had luck, for now. You may be limited in how much you can carry on, and you can't select your seats when you book, and possibly not at all. You probably can't upgrade. Probably other limitations. Read closely when you book, especially if you don't book through the airline.
I had a lot of misgivings after booking, because I hate airline travel, hate middle seats, and often upgrade to 1st class or premium if it's available. I wondered why I was being cheap, and was a bit tempted the week before travel to take their offer to pay for an assured economy seat.
At exactly 24 hours before, I checked in. To my surprise, I was able to grab exit row seats for both myself and my son on the first flight, but not the second. I found that we were on "standby", which upset me that we may not even get on the flight, but googling showed that it was standby for seat assignment, not standby for getting a ticket. Even at the airport we still didn't have seats for that second flight.
Oh, btw, Delta allows a carry on and under seat bag (most other airlines do not for that fare), but we could still have to check it if the overheads were full. But since we were exit row, we were zone 1 so there was plenty of space.
As we landed at the connecting airport, I checked the Delta app and found that we had been assigned another exit row seat, and again zone 1. My son had a middle seat next to me, but that was fine. We actually hadn't booked together since he had a different return, but since we were on the "standby list" together, they seemed to assign seats in order, front to back as available, so we wound up together, or maybe they noticed the same name and did it.
My son flew back on American, and checked in 24 hours in advance and got non-middle seats. I didn't find out about carry ons but he was ready to consolidate to one bag under the seat if needed.
On my return I could only get the 2nd flight seat assigned, again an exit row, 24 hours in advance. When I got to the airport about an hour early, I found they had put me in an exit row for the first flight too.
So, I went 4 for 4 with exit rows, probably by checking in right at 24 hours in advance. Better seats than I would've had with the more expensive regular economy.
As it turned out, my first flight on the return got in early and I had noticed that I had a chance to make an earlier connecting flight. They had already boarded but the doors were open, and after asking me if I was Delta platinum or something like that, they said there was just one seat open in the very back. A terrible seat but it saved me 3 hours in ATL so I took it. As I walked on, I noticed the bulkhead seats were empty but maybe they couldn't or didn't give them to me because of the basic economy ticket. It was only an hour or so flight so no big deal.
I wonder if I just got super lucky with seats, or if basic economy really isn't that bad.
