Flights Delta and partner Basic Economy: checked bag charge on transatlantic

[Andrew]

From One Mile at a Time: the main U.S. carriers have started Basic Economy fares that are highly restricted, including no advance seat assignments. As Delta expands it internationally, they and their partners Air France, KLM, and Alitalia will charge for the first checked bag:

Delta has eliminated the free checked bag for those traveling on basic economy fares between the US/Canada and Europe/North Africa. This new policy applies for tickets booked as of December 6, 2017, for travel as of April 10, 2018.
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This is new for U.S. legacy carriers. The lowest fares have this restriction, while Economy with the some of the features previously expected is called Main Cabin, with a higher fare.

 

[SusanSeattle]

I saw this when I was looking at tickets on Iceland Air.
But, I'm looking at a Delta flight on Expedia for next summer (june - july) and it says 1st checked baggage is free on economy. Andrew, any idea why?

 

[Andrew]

Part of it could be that we're talking about BASIC Economy, the name of a bare-bones class of service inferior to Economy that's just being introduced on Delta transatlantic, and the headline on the link says it will be offered on "some itineraries." See in the sample JFK-LHR quote shown there that there's a column for Basic Economy, and another for "Main Cabin," which is Economy as offered in recent times (and probably what Expedia means by Economy). However, I've tried to replicate that search on the Delta site for the April 11 date shown there, and don't get a column for Basic Economy. Maybe in the weeks since that was posted, they've decided not to sell BE for that flight.

 

[SusanSeattle]

It's good to know it won't be on all flights. My normal travel suitcase is one size larger than carry on plus I hate slepping my bag around in airports.

 

[Mom83]

I just found this out today when booking Delta flights to Dublin in August. $60 for the first bag...$100 for the second!