Companies plan to hide airlines' restrictive 'basic' business fares
Major airlines like Delta and United are introducing 'basic' business-class fares that exclude perks like lounge access and seat selection. Corporate travel managers are concerned that these restrictive tickets will increase costs and reduce flexibility for business travelers.
Why it matters
This shift in airline pricing strategies forces corporations to re-evaluate travel policies to ensure employees maintain necessary flexibility.
CHICAGO — No advanced seat selection, lounge access or flight changes included with a C-suite executive's business-class ticket? Absolutely not, some companies say.
Delta Air Lines joined United Airlines last month in launching stripped-down business-class fares for certain flights, taking the same approach they used to carve up coach class to their more expensive cabins as carriers get customers to pay more for perks in the sky.
That's a new headache for companies' business travel managers.
AerSale — which leases aircraft and engines and offers maintenance and other services — likely won't block basic premium options altogether for its hundreds of traveling employees. But those tickets would be impractical for many of its workers, said Jackie Carlon, the Doral, Florida-based company's senior vice president of marketing and communications.
"The real value is flexibility," Carlon said. "Paying a bit more, it's not necessarily a cost to us — it's insurance."
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