Companies plan to hide airlines’ restrictive ‘basic’ business fares

CHICAGO — No advanced seat selection, lounge access or flight changes included with a C-suite executive’s business-class ticket? Absolutely not, some companies say.

Delta Air Lines joined United Airlines last month in launching stripped-down business class fares for certain flights, taking the same approach they used to carve up coach class to their more expensive cabins as carriers get customers to pay more for perks in the sky.

That’s a new headache for companies’ business travel mangers.

AerSale — which leases aircraft and engines and offers maintenance and other services — likely won’t block basic premium options altogether for its hundreds of traveling employees. But those tickets would be impractical for many of its workers, said Jackie Carlon, the Doral, Florida-based company’s senior vice president of marketing and communications.

“The real value is flexibility,” Carlon said. “Paying a bit more, it’s not necessarily a cost to us — it’s insurance.”

With the new fares, the cheapest option for long-haul international flights won’t come with things like access to an airport lounge or the ability to pick a seat for free in advance. Perhaps most important for business travel, no changes are allowed without paying a fee on top of a difference in fare.

Delta said change fees for basic business class could range from none at all up to $400, depending on the route, and from $99 to as much as $500 for cancellations.

Because work trips can change on a dime, a restrictive ticket in business class can cost a company even more if travelers have to buy a whole new flight. Only a small proportion of a corporation’s business travelers usually fly in top-tier cabins, but the higher fares could further drive up travel costs.

The difference in fares, meanwhile, could be several hundred dollars to close to $1,000, if not more.

On United, for example, the least expensive fare in the airlines’ lie-flat pod Polaris cabin doesn’t come with access to the Polaris business-class airport lounge, which features a bar, sit-down dining, a rest area, showers and other amenities. The traveler also can’t pick a seat in advance without paying a fee and no changes are allowed. Travelers can cancel the flight with a fee. United doesn’t disclose its fees for the new fares, and a spokeswoman said the amounts vary.

For a flight going from Newark, New Jersey, to London Heathrow on Oct. 1 and returning Oct. 8, the “base” Polaris ticket was going for $4,490, while the standard fare was $4,890, and it was $5,390 for a flexible, refundable ticket.

Airlines say it gives customers more of a choice.

“We support our corporate travel partners by giving them full control over which fare products are available to their business travelers based on their own policies and business objectives,” Delta said in a statement. “We continue to see strong demand for premium travel.”

Dane Molter, senior vice president at Navan Group Travel Marketplace, which reported $9.1 billion in gross booking volume in the 12 months ended Jan. 31, said clients that use the platform are seeking more detailed policy controls that could determine which fare an employee books for a trip.

“Travel managers are asking a sensible question: Does the lower upfront fare still represent good value if it lacks flexibility, seat selection, lounge access or other benefits their travelers expect?” he said in a statement.

Two travel managers at public companies at the Global Business Travel Association’s annual convention in Chicago said they would likely seek to block the fares altogether. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk about their employers’ travel spending,

While airlines like Germany’s Lufthansa and Etihad Airways, based in the United Arab Emirates, have already offered stripped-down basic business-class fares, it’s still early days for these types of tickets.

The divisions at the front of the plane comes as airfare is on the rise across the board the year. Globally, airfare is set to rise close to 5% this year from last to an average of $756 for a roundtrip flight, with premium rising even more: 9.5% to $4,488, the Global Business Travel Association forecast this week at its annual convention.

John Bukowski, vice president of global marketplace experience, product and engineering at corporate travel and expense giant American Express Global Business Travel, which had $36.3 billion in bookings in 2025, told CNBC earlier this week that he hasn’t seen a lot of clients seeking to block the fares so far, like they have with basic economy tickets.

Companies about a decade ago started blocking their travelers from booking basic economy fares, which have become even more restrictive, including in some cases by lowering the frequent flyer miles a traveler earns or eliminating that option altogether. Airline executives have frequently measured the success of basic economy by how many travelers paid up to avoid it.

Scott Laurence, a partner at Oliver Wyman’s transportation practice who previously worked at JetBlue Airways and American Airlines, said the cheaper, basic business or other premium fares could be attractive to a more price-sensitive small or medium-sized company, but that the options could become complicated.

American doesn’t offer the basic business, or basic premium economy fares, which could also add confusion if another carrier that does appears cheaper at first glance.

“The travel managers are going to value some level of simplicity and making sure things work with their expense system and their policy,” he said.

Laurence added that travel managers are likely to collect a lot of feedback from their customers, especially if they’re used to lounge access at the end of a long-haul flight or they’re earning fewer miles.

But “there’s an interest in offering a lower price point,” he said. “It also is … frankly, about driving buy up.”