Lufthansa's New Europe Fares

I don't know how long British Airways has also been using that structure for their intra-European, stand-alone flight purchases, but I found it when booking one yesterday. The lowest rate matched EasyJet's and BA happened to have more departures on my route.

I had a similar option when I bought tickets on Air France TLV-CDG. I paid extra for a checked bag and still came out ahead of the next tier's price.

Just got the same three options for Delta on a domestic US flight. It's in effect now. So when you search fares, you'll see the lowest only, one whose services are comparable to a budget airline: pay extra for everything but you aren't allowed to change seats or pay extra for an upgraded seat. If you want the "service" we had until recently, it's a higher fare that allows you only to choose a seat and be allowed to pay extra for economy plus and priority boarding. It's a sneaky way of raising fares by taking away service. Every seat in the plane has a different price tag and status. It was a very unpleasant experience working my way through the reservation with all the up-selling.

I mostly travel in Germany and German speaking countries, and the length of most days travel wouldn't justify flying. By the time I get to the airport from downtown, check in, go through security, wait to board, fly, deplane, and find ground transportation and go to my destination, I would spend more time than just going by train. So flying domestically in Europe is not in the cards. But if I did, Economy Lite sound just fine. I don't need to check a bag, and I can get meals on either end. It would be nice to have a reserved seat next to my partner, but for a few hours flight, we could rough it.

Bets, where did you see that with Delta? We were on Delta in Jun and the fares were the standard econ/business. I am looking at domestic fares for Nov and not seeing anything different. Standard economy and business/first. I am not seeing a three tier system for economy. Unless you want to count the up grade offer to economy comfort as one of the tiers.

Talked to the gate agent yesterday who told me the budget fare option is offered on two of the regional airlines now. Not on the parent company yet.

American Airlines is doing the same thing for domestic flights. There is Choice(carry on bag and seat assignment), Choice Essential (includes 1 checked bag and Group 1 boarding), Choice Plus(same as Choice Essential with additional mileage perks) and First class.