I recently took a couple of flights with most of my family across the country, from our home in Cincinnati out to California and back. We ended up booking Delta basic economy using Sky Miles. This was due to being the best deal on price and timing, as is the case for most flight bookings. It was 12,000 Sky Miles per person on the way out to California and 15,000 Sky Miles per person on the way back. Even though I have had good luck getting 3 cents per mile (and even sometimes 4 cents per mile) using American AAdvantage miles, it didn’t work out for me for these flights.
Booking Delta Basic Economy
We ended up booking these flights for 6 people on 2 different reservations for 2 different reasons. One was to use some orphaned miles in one of my kids’ Delta accounts (from getting 20,000 miles when our flights from Paris were cancelled) and the other was that on the outbound flight, there were only 2 seats at 12K per person while the rest were 15K per person. So splitting up the booking saved us 6,000 Sky Miles. When Delta’s operations melted down due to the CrowdStrike issue, being on separate bookings nearly became a big problem, but instead it was just a minor annoyance.
There were a few things about Delta Basic Economy that really were annoying, compared to flying Basic Economy on other airlines, so I thought I’d take a quick look at what Basic Economy looks like on the major U.S. airlines to see which one is the worst
Delta Air Lines Basic Economy
Delta’s Basic Economy gives you
- A carryon in addition to a personal item
- No seat selection
- No elite upgrades
- No mileage earning or MQDs
American Airlines Basic Economy
American’s Basic Economy gives you
- A carryon in addition to a personal item
- Seat selection (for a fee)
- Elites eligible for upgrades
- Reduced mileage earning but no elite qualifying miles or dollars
Alaska Airlines Basic Economy
Alaska’s Basic Economy gives you
- A carryon in addition to a personal item
- No seat selection
- Reduced mileage earning but full elite qualifying miles
Southwest Airlines Basic Economy
Southwest doesn’t have basic economy (yet!), so even their basic “Wanna Get Away” fares come with
- A carryon in addition to a personal item
- Seat selection (such that it is on Southwest)
- Full mileage earning and elite earning
United Airlines Basic Economy
United’s Basic Economy gives you
- Only a personal item (no overhead / larger carryon), unless you have elite status or a United credit card.
- No seat selection
- No elite upgrades
- Elite and redeemable miles at a reduced rate
Basic Economy on other U.S. airlines
With JetBlue and Hawaiian, basic economy fares come with similar restrictions, and on ultra low cost carriers like Spirit, Frontier and Allegiant, basically everything is equivalent to basic economy on some of the legacy carriers.
So Who Has The Worst Basic Economy?
Setting aside Southwest, which doesn’t yet have the concept of basic economy and the ultra low cost carriers where everything is basic economy, here’s how I would rate the big 4
- American Airlines
- Alaska Airlines
- Delta Air Lines
- United Airlines
So going back to the post title and my original question, does Delta have the worst basic economy? Well, no, it doesn’t look like it based on this quick calculation – United seems to be the worst, since unless you have status or a United credit card you can’t even bring a full-size carry on (like you can on other airlines’ basic economy fares). In fact, up until August 2024 you couldn’t even CHECK IN online or at a kiosk when flying United basic economy unless you paid for a checked bag.
BUT, there is one caveat, and it’s an important one for miles and points travelers like myself (and probably many of you). Delta is (I think?) the only airline where booking the cheapest MILES ticket puts you into basic economy.
I think at all the other airlines there is only one option for booking an economy ticket with miles, and it doesn’t fall into basic economy.
This is what bit us when we booked our family of 6 using miles on Delta – on 2 out of our 4 flights on the trip, when we checked in, we were literally seated into 6 middle seats in different rows, and that was even with traveling with kids. Thankfully my kids are a bit older so this wasn’t a huge deal, but imagine if I had tried booking this when I had toddlers and young kids? Talk about a flight disaster. Because of this, I do vote Delta as worst basic economy for booking award tickets.
The Bottom Line
We can’t always fly first class in the front of the plane, and sometimes it makes the most sense to fly basic economy. While I think United probably has the worst basic economy overall, I think Delta has the worst basic economy for booking award tickets, since they’re the only major airline where the cheapest award ticket comes with basic economy restrictions.
What do you think? Whose basic economy is the worst (and who’s the best) out of all these options?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
United is definitely the worst
Yeah – that is what my analysis seemed to uncover, at least for normal basic economy tickets. Though it’s frustrating that Delta is the only airline (as far as I could tell) that puts the cheapest award tickets into basic economy – United doesn’t do that
The other aspect that makes Delta the worst for this IMO is that you get no sky Club access when flying basic economy. Things like no carry-on bag for United can be circumvented with a United credit card, whereas there is no way to get SkyClub access when you have a basic economy ticket.
That’s a great point!
This has to be a trick question. The real answer is basic economy is horrible no matter the carrier.
The truth is one shouldn’t be seduced by the lower price and just book a regular economy fare and be done with it. Maybe on a one-off trip it might end up ok…but eventually, one will get split from their family, want to make a date change, or have problems in IRROPs since they are last priority to be rebooked. In this way, spending the little bit more is well worth it.
As for miles, Delta is the only one to segregate the awards in the US. Air Canada does this as well..I suspect the rest of the legacies will do this eventually, too (not looking forward to that day!).
I mean sure, in some ways your comment is completely correct. But it’s also true that in certain situations, basic economy is fine. I’m specifically thinking of flights where I am flying by myself and potentially on a short trip with just a personal item.
But if I had fully grasped the concept that Delta would book our family of 6 into 6 middle seats (with by definition nobody next to each other), I probably would have booked Main Cabin (or booked another airline), as you suggest.