Basic economy fares are usually the least expensive tickets that you can purchase for flights with an airline — but keep in mind this one way to save money on the lowest fares…
One Way to Save Money on the Lowest Fares…
…and that one way is to not fall for the airline selling you a bundle. Most airlines try to sell bundles during the booking process with fancy brand names in an attempt to have you spend more money than necessary on an airline ticket.
I will use an example with Jetstar from this article which relates the experience of my first flight as a passenger with the airline last year from Sydney to Uluru.
As important as the flight experience itself is the process of booking a ticket with Jetstar Airways — and the process starts easily enough, with a scrollable airfare bar which allows you to choose the lowest airfare. More information will be imparted on the actual flight in a moment.
First, let me demonstrate the process of booking a ticket with Jetstar Airways with a phantom flight: because I randomly chose Wednesday, May 22, 2024 for my flight — I was going through the process for this article and not actually booking a flight — the least expensive airfare one way was $129.00 in Australian dollars, which is what I chose for this example.
At this point in the booking process, the time to sell is now: first, which bundle would you like to purchase? Four choices of airfare bundles were offered — each with their own features and benefits: Starter, Flex, Plus, and Max. Note the yellow alert above the Plus bundle, which states that it is a “popular choice”; and that I can save at least 54 percent on my included extra items. Starter is the equivalent to Basic Economy; and that was the one I chose, as I did not want or need most of the options which were offered with the more expensive fares.
As the flight was only one way, I did not need to choose a return flight — so the cost of the ticket for this flight is $129.00.
Next comes selling you a baggage allowance. You can choose options for checked baggage. Note the conspicuous prompt that the 20 kilogram option is “recommended” for trips to this destination — again, attempting to sell something to you for additional revenue to the airline.
Because I almost never check baggage, I ignored the recommended option and chose 0 kilograms. True to the tactics of an ultra-low-cost airline, I was prompted with the question “Are you sure?”, as adding baggage on later was more expensive; and adding baggage at the airport was “much more expensive”. I ignored this and moved on.
The next choice was carry-on baggage, of which passengers could carry aboard both a bag and a personal item for no extra charge — but the total weight permitted between both items was seven kilograms, which is equivalent to almost 15.5 pounds. I rarely pay extra for weight…
…but because this flight was part of a trip that lasted slightly greater than three weeks — plus, I was carrying my laptop computer and camera equipment with me — I reluctantly decided to play it safe and paid extra for the option of 14 kilograms, which is equivalent to almost 31 pounds.
Adding the 14 kilogram option increased the fare by $30.00 to $159.00. I then continued with the process of booking a ticket.
Once all flight segments have been selected, you have the option to pay the airfare with interest-free payments — I was offered to pay four interest-free fortnightly payments of $40.35 — but you will be paying for this service; and the fee of 1.5 percent is not initially disclosed:
Afterpay lets you buy what you want today and pay for it over four fortnightly installments. Make your purchase using Afterpay (subject to approval) and let Afterpay do the rest — they’ll schedule your payments, remind you when they’re due and automatically process them for you.
Afterpay is available for bookings that don’t exceed $3,000 including a payment fee of 1.5%. If your total order amount exceeds your approved spending limit, your upfront payment may be higher than subsequent payments. Afterpay will show you how the instalments are split before you pay, with the first payment due at the time of purchase. Afterpay is interest-free when paid by the due date otherwise late fees apply. Refer to the Terms & Conditions for more information.
Suffice it to say, do not choose this option if you are seeking to save money on airfare.
Next to sell by Jetstar Airways is the selection of a seat. For this one segment, selecting a seat can cost between $8.00 and $24.00 — in Australian dollars, of course. Know that the price of selecting a seat depends on the flight and where the seat is located aboard the airplane. You are not required to select a seat — unless you want a guarantee that you will sit next to a traveling partner or you want a specific seat. Otherwise, you can continue and skip this step.
Choosing seats with the Starter fare costs extra. I did not choose a seat; so I skipped this step. After checking in for my flight, I was assigned seat 5A, which is a window seat near the front of the airplane. That would have cost me at least eleven extra Australian dollars had I selected the seat at any time prior to checking in for the flight.
Meals and snacks may be ordered in advance during the process of booking a ticket. The flight was only three hours and 35 minutes in duration. I did not need any sustenance; so I skipped this step.
More sales opportunities: next was the offer to book a room at a hotel or resort property.
Unlike Frontier Airlines — which asks for passenger information and contact details at the beginning of the process of booking a ticket — Jetstar Airways does not request the information until towards the end of the process of booking a ticket, which is more convenient to find out the total cost of a flight.
Next comes the last ditch effort to sell something called FareCredit, which “gives you the flexibility to cancel your booking any time before airport check-in for a credit voucher to the value of your flights and any in-flight extras.”
Qantas Points can be used with another payment method to pay for the ticket.
You could also donate to StarKids; and 100 percent of the donation will go to World Vision to improve the lives of children in some of the world’s poorest communities.
Finally, Jetstar Airways offers a variety of ways to pay for the ticket. The percentage of fees that are applied to each method is useful information about which to know.
One thing about flying as a passenger with Jetstar Airways is that the upselling process is not nearly as frenetic as that of Frontier Airlines, which uses almost every possible way to upsell on almost anything it can upsell: during the ticket booking process, on placards, and on signage as only three of numerous conveyances to sell baggage allowances, seat assignments, food, snacks, and beverages — among other items and services.
If you believe that ultra-low-cost carriers are the only airlines that try to upsell you, think again.
Delta Air Lines offers up to eleven different fare classes in groups of four products. Using Wednesday, January 14, 2026 as a random example for a one-way flight from New York to Las Vegas shows three choices for Delta Main — with Main Basic being the lowest cost. Passengers do not need to be concerned about purchasing an extra weight allowance to carry bags aboard the airplane; but passengers will not be able to earn SkyMiles or select a seat assignment until after they check in.
What is worse about this is that once a passenger chooses Main Basic, options cannot be added during the booking process — so if all you want is a seat assignment and do not care about what zone you board the aircraft or being eligible for a possible upgrade, that is too bad, as you will be required to pay for Main Classic for an extra $50.00 for that seat assignment.
United Airlines is even worse: the flight from Newark to Las Vegas on Wednesday, January 14, 2026…
…even though the lowest fare is $20.00 less expensive than what is offered by Delta Air Lines, you must pay a minimum of $35.00 for the privilege of carrying a bag aboard the airplane, which is still $15.00 less than the fare of $159.00…
…but at least you will earn a pitiful pittance of MileagePlus miles after the flight has completed.
Final Boarding Call
Interestingly enough, I did not see any employee of Jetstar Airways checking the weight of any of the belongings that passengers brought aboard the airplanes. My experience suggests to me that the gate agents are not all that restrictive about the baggage allowance I might have been able to avoid the extra charge for the extra weight; but I had no idea and did not want to take the chance of being caught…
…but earlier this year, our carry-on baggage was weighed at the gate in Sydney on our way to Brisbane. It was slightly over the limit overall — but just as they were about to charge us for the extra weight, I showed them a voucher that I received earlier in the trip that was worth significantly more than what the fee for the overweight bags would have cost. The employees of Jetstar said that they could not accept that voucher as payment for the overweight bags — but because our itinerary was interrupted earlier in the trip due to Tropical Cyclone Alfred, they were sympathetic to our plight and did not charge us any extra for our baggage.
The main point of this article is to not be fooled by the sales tactics of the airline when attempting to book a ticket at the lowest fare. If you want to purchase a low fare, do not feel like you need to purchase a package to get what you want — unless the individual items that you actually do want cost more than the bundle.
Even worse is that the least expensive fares that included seat assignments and carrying bags aboard an airplane not all that long ago were approximately the same price as what basic economy fares are today — which means that the fares that included those items actually is a hidden price increase.
I try to play the basic economy game to my advantage whenever possible; but when it is not possible to do so, I will purchase the next least expensive fare…
All photographs ©2025 by Brian Cohen.
