And our first question comes from Double Double Animal Fries, who asks, "With Delta's change, what do you think about basic business class in general?"
So, I have two feelings about basic business class.
I think for a certain type of traveler, if it is cheaper, they're going to just be like, "Cool." Like, "I get the seat I want." And by seat I want, I mean you're not picking it apparently.
"But I get a, a bigger seat or a seat closer to the front of the plane.
I don't need the lounge, like, I don't need X, Y, or Z, like, cool." And I think for a certain type of traveler, this is gonna make some amount of sense, right? If your work says you have to spend under X dollar and this is now under X dollar and you don't get the goodies but you weren't gonna use the goodies anyway, like, awesome.
Works out.
For the overall picture though, basic business class worries me because decoupling, decoupling perks from tickets and things like that is a slope that only really goes one way.
Like, we're not gonna see the, "Oh, we're just gonna put everything back and keep the lower price." Like, prices are going up and perks are coming off, and that is a worrying trend.
I, I think that that is gonna be unfortunately a side effect.
So if it works for you, like great, you got a slightly cheaper ticket price potentially.
I think it's a bad trend.
So I am split on it for that.
I don't love the amount of things being decoupled.
It's gonna depend on how much cheaper it is, depending on what you're doing, so there's that to keep in mind, but yeah, I, I don't love the trend.
Yeah.
I'm left with many questions myself.
How much of a savings is it stripping off of, stripping away seat selection, stripping away the lounge access associated with the ticket, stripping away, what was the other thing that you lost in terms of perks? Oh, the earnings for the ticket, and full mileage earning and ticket flexibility.
If you're losing all of those things, right, it's non-refundable, and so if they're cutting the price in half and they're saying that, like, the perks are worth half the price of the business class ticket to begin with, is it worth it? I don't know.
The other question would be, if you hold something like the Delta Reserve or you hold a card like the American Express Platinum card, does flying basic business preclude you access to a Delta Sky Club while holding those cards? Because I don't think that you're able to do basic economy tickets and fly and, and utilize the lounge.
So if that's the same for basic business, that's not great.
No, but if you know it going in and are willing to do it, I get it, but I agree it's not great overall.
Yeah.
It, it's really gonna become a question of how much are you, how cheap are you willing to fly to, like, how, how much more accessible does this make Europe for you? If it's instantly more accessible and you're willing to put up with the trade-offs and you have TSA PreCheck and, and Clear and whatever to get through security faster and you're fine with, you know, whatever basic perks that they allow you to have, and maybe you get your bags, your bags checked by way of your card, it could work out.
Do I think that this is particularly a good idea? No, not necessarily.
But I, I can see where Delta is willing to play this game, because Delta makes more money than the other carriers, and a lot, and every time that, you know, there's been an unbundling of perks or an unbundling of services, uh, Delta continues to win.
And our first question comes from Double Double Animal Fries, who asks, "With Delta's change, what do you think about basic business class in general?"
So, I have two feelings about basic business class.
I think for a certain type of traveler, if it is cheaper, they're going to just be like, "Cool." Like, "I get the seat I want." And by seat I want, I mean you're not picking it apparently.
"But I get a, a bigger seat or a seat closer to the front of the plane.
I don't need the lounge, like, I don't need X, Y, or Z, like, cool." And I think for a certain type of traveler, this is gonna make some amount of sense, right? If your work says you have to spend under X dollar and this is now under X dollar and you don't get the goodies but you weren't gonna use the goodies anyway, like, awesome.
Works out.
For the overall picture though, basic business class worries me because decoupling, decoupling perks from tickets and things like that is a slope that only really goes one way.
Like, we're not gonna see the, "Oh, we're just gonna put everything back and keep the lower price." Like, prices are going up and perks are coming off, and that is a worrying trend.
I, I think that that is gonna be unfortunately a side effect.
So if it works for you, like great, you got a slightly cheaper ticket price potentially.
I think it's a bad trend.
So I am split on it for that.
I don't love the amount of things being decoupled.
It's gonna depend on how much cheaper it is, depending on what you're doing, so there's that to keep in mind, but yeah, I, I don't love the trend.
Yeah.
I'm left with many questions myself.
How much of a savings is it stripping off of, stripping away seat selection, stripping away the lounge access associated with the ticket, stripping away, what was the other thing that you lost in terms of perks? Oh, the earnings for the ticket, and full mileage earning and ticket flexibility.
If you're losing all of those things, right, it's non-refundable, and so if they're cutting the price in half and they're saying that, like, the perks are worth half the price of the business class ticket to begin with, is it worth it? I don't know.
The other question would be, if you hold something like the Delta Reserve or you hold a card like the American Express Platinum card, does flying basic business preclude you access to a Delta Sky Club while holding those cards? Because I don't think that you're able to do basic economy tickets and fly and, and utilize the lounge.
So if that's the same for basic business, that's not great.
No, but if you know it going in and are willing to do it, I get it, but I agree it's not great overall.
Yeah.
It, it's really gonna become a question of how much are you, how cheap are you willing to fly to, like, how, how much more accessible does this make Europe for you? If it's instantly more accessible and you're willing to put up with the trade-offs and you have TSA PreCheck and, and Clear and whatever to get through security faster and you're fine with, you know, whatever basic perks that they allow you to have, and maybe you get your bags, your bags checked by way of your card, it could work out.
Do I think that this is particularly a good idea? No, not necessarily.
But I, I can see where Delta is willing to play this game, because Delta makes more money than the other carriers, and a lot, and every time that, you know, there's been an unbundling of perks or an unbundling of services, uh, Delta continues to win.
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