U.S. Airlines To Announce New Fare Types

United Airlines, a Chicago-based carrier, announces a new fare system for Polaris Business and Premium Economy seats. The airline will now offer three ticketing tiers for those ticket types. To view, click here. The airline is trying to sell benefits for an upchrge that were originally included. The airline claims this can lower fares, but I find that extremely unlikely, and rather, they will take a tailwind. My guess is United Basic fares will be the same as the old rates, and flexible fares will be an upcharge. Truthfully, I don’t like this from a customer perspective because this takes away change and benefits unless you pay a premium, but from a corporate perspective, I cherish this because limiting change will reduce last-minute changes, and those who change travel plans are corporate customers who are their large spenders that have close to no budget and it is like printing extra money for United. This drives a bigger question: Delta was the first to announce this to come, but hasn’t released specifics like this, will all of the other U.S. carriers follow United's lead or stick to the likely passenger preferred offering.