Over time, we’ve seen the concept of “basic economy” become pretty widespread, whereby the cheapest economy fares include the fewest perks. The purpose of this is twofold — to expand a carrier’s potential customer base, and to get existing customers to “buy up” to a higher fare, in order to avoid punitive restrictions.
Internationally, we’ve also seen some airlines introduce basic business class. Up until now, it’s not really a concept we’ve seen at one of the “big three” US airlines. However, that’s almost certainly going to change in the near future.
For some time, Delta has been transparent about its intent to introduce basic business class. While there still hasn’t been a formal announcement, executives at the airline provided more details during the company’s 2025 earnings call yesterday, including sharing a timeline. We can potentially expect all of Delta’s cabin products to have “basic” fares before the end of 2026!
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on One Mile at a Time.
