In this article which asked Would You Purchase Tickets for No-Frills International Flights From Legacy Carriers? — which was published here at The Gate With Brian Cohen exactly ten years ago today on Saturday, July 23, 2016 — he correctly predicted no-frills international fares would be offered by legacy carriers…
He Correctly Predicted No-Frills International Fares With Legacy Carriers Ten Years Ago…
…and that person is Jay Sorensen — who is the current president of IdeaWorks, which is a travel and airline consulting company that is based in Shorewood in Wisconsin — who was quoted as saying “It’s only a matter of time before American, United, and other major carriers adopt similar no-frill tickets for international flights”.
Fast forward ten years later to July of 2026, and all three major legacy carriers in the United States indeed not only offer fares with virtually no frills whatsoever; but they also bar most of their passengers who purchase these basic fares from achieving elite status, choosing seats, upgrading to better seats, and no earning of points with flights…
…and Delta Air Lines and United Airlines also have recently introduced basic fares for seats in the business class cabin. Moreover, basic no-frills international fares are also available for award tickets — such as when I flew as a passenger for 13 hours as part of a round trip between Las Vegas and Taipei via Seattle with the redemption of only 37,400 SkyMiles per person; or when I spent 14 hours in economy class in a middle seat near the rear of the aircraft with no recline from Los Angeles to Sydney. This is when basic economy fares work for me.
However, Jay Sorensen was also quoted as saying that “the consumer will react fine with this.”
I do believe that that part of his prognostication was incorrect. In fact, I do not recall seeing a single person who actually celebrates basic fares over any other option — especially when the basic fare costs the same or more than the fares that offered the full complement of “frills”, which many pundits perceive to actually be a hidden increase in price…
…and count me as one of them.
Final Boarding Call
I do not believe anyone will argue that basic economy fares are permanent and will not be eradicated anytime soon — but I have read a significant number of comments from people who are complaining about basic fares with seats in the premium class cabins.
Despite the proliferation of basic economy fares, many people avoid paying for them and instead purchase a more expensive fare — which is exactly what management at airlines want: offer a product that people perceive to be so horrific that they will be willing to pay significantly more money on essentially the same product for which they paid ten years ago…
…so the question remains ten years later: would you purchase tickets for no-frills international flights from legacy carriers?
All photographs ©2021, ©2025, and ©2026 by Brian Cohen.
