Delta Basic Economy is dead to me.
I don’t mind flying what I have dubbed a peasant airline: Frontier, Allegiant, one of the ones I haven’t tried yet like Avelo or Breeze … if they fly out of the south portable in Austin, I’m down. [Exception: Spirit. Nope. Never have I ever been so uncomfortable sitting … does the seat actually slope downward?]
Knowing this, let me tell you the tale.
On an airline I hardly ever fly but would consider one of the best, I received the very worst treatment based on this fare class. Yes, I understand that I paid not-a-lot of dollars for this flight but I did that because I didn’t need a bag and the flights were short enough and the higher price regular Delta ticket offered me nothing the basic economy ticket didn’t.
Well, friends, turned out I did need to pay this price if I didn’t want to be treated like a literal peasant.
Y’all, I get that in a lot of ways I’m not your average traveler. I have done a lot of dumb shit to be able to see the world, visit friends across the globe, and revisit my favorite places and people. I have booked bad airlines and in other languages and packed tiny backpacks for multiple weeks and strapped my ski boots to my carryon (I was young-young that time). The airlines hate travelers like me because even for business travel—which I do frequently—I don’t care about status, I care about the best flight time for my needs: nonstop and not too early, as cheap as I can find.
But! Impossibly, this (horrible bad no good) experience has reminded me how much I love the experience of travel: how much I enjoy watching people pass by in an airport, digging into a book in a dark plane in a way you just can’t anywhere else, and of late, the quiet luxury of a lounge. Ah, the Amex lounge! Better than a coffee shop or coworking space, the lounge is a pantheon of efficiency, people watching, and free buffets and booze.
This, friends, is the gratitude and devastating disappointment I faced on my recent trip.
I’d choose frontier over delta basic economy any day. Frontier may nickel and dime you but personally I’m fine with getting what I pay for as mentioned above because the people—some of whom are steward/esses that other airlines would put out to pasture—on Frontier do treat everyone well. They are friendly! And happy to be flying!
Because fundamentally, I am always happy to be flying. What a joy!
Dead-to-Lyssa airline list:
- Jet Blue (once canceled a flight 3 hours before departure and offered me $50 for my toubles. NEVER AGAIN.)
- Spirit (see: downward-sloping seats?!)
- Delta Basic Economy (regrettably a new addition)